Turkey to renew all election boards until July’s first week
NURAY BABACAN-ANKARA
The Supreme Election Board (YSK) has announced that all election boards will be renewed until July 6 in line with the recent amendments to the election law.
The new election law brings about changes to the composition of election boards, stipulating that the head of the election board does not necessarily have to be the most senior judge or prosecutor in the concerned constituency. In case two judges want to serve as the head of the election board, he or she will be decided by lot, according to the law.
In accordance with these changes, the YSK pushed the button for the renewal of election boards, believed to be around 1,400 across the country. The works for the composition of new election boards will take place at the YSK’s judicial commissions in provinces with the participation of representatives of political parties.
The new election boards will have to be structured before July 6 after the new members take the oath.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has appealed to the Constitutional Court for the annulment of three articles of the new law, including on the composition of election boards. It said the head of the election board should be the most senior judge in that particular constituency and changing this procedure does not comply with the constitution.
Parliament voted in favor of the amendments to the electoral law that reduced the national threshold from 10 to 7 percent. It also stresses that all the parties should pass the national threshold to win seats in parliament, although they are part of an alliance.
If the total number of votes received by the alliance exceeds the country threshold, the distribution of deputies will be calculated by taking into account the number of votes received by the parties in the alliance in that electoral district.
If the party that has qualified to participate in the elections has not held its district, provincial and grand congresses successively twice within the time limits specified in the law, it will lose this right.
The law no longer allows a political party with a group of at least 20 lawmakers in the parliament to run in the elections. This aims to prevent the political parties from transferring lawmakers just to be eligible to run in the elections.
