Nation will have the last say on elections: Erdoğan

ISTANBUL

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said his party will seek to realize the national will at the polls during the renewal of Istanbul local elections on June 23.

“The democracy is in danger if there is a deadlock in holding elections or redoing the polls,” Erdoğan said in comments at an iftar dinner on May 12 organized by the Beyoğlu Municipality in Istanbul.

“It’s an honor for us if we are accused of contributing to democracy or of respecting the decision taken for this end,” he said.

Erdoğan did not name main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) but said they would not “sacrifice the national will to those yearning for an era of one-party rule.”

“National will is everything for us,” he said. 

The president also criticized celebrities, who had thanked him for the sectorial regulations, for being “clappers” of Ekrem İmamoğlu, CHP mayoral candidate for Istanbul.

It was his government that adopted an amendment in favor of the movie sector, he said, stressing that no previous government had taken such a step. Those artists thanked him for this legislation, Erdoğan said. He criticized them for now supporting the CHP candidate for Istanbul.

“Artists should speak with arts, not lick someone’s boots,” Erdoğan said, adding that he appreciates artists who speak with their art.

Last week, dozens of Turkey’s most prominent artists took to social media to support Istanbul’s ousted mayor, responding to his call for them to speak out against a decision to annul his election victory over Ergoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

İmamoğlu had been in office less than three weeks when Turkey’s High Election Board (YSK) on May 6 ordered a re-run of the election, citing irregularities, after weeks of appeals by the AKP.

In its decision, the elections authority said some polling officials and staff on March 31 were not public servants as required by law.