Turkish PM pledges to hold elections in line with international standards

ANKARA

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Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu dismissed concerns about the safety of the upcoming polls due to intensified terror acts, especially in eastern and southeastern Anatolia, pledging to hold the elections on Nov. 1 in line with international standards despite the growing security concerns. 

Turkey is capable of holding elections while fighting against terrorism, the prime minister said, in a response to Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş’s recent negative remarks on the security of the elections. 

Turkey had earlier held elections in a difficult environment, Davutoğlu said. In the 1990’s, elections were not held in better conditions, he added, noting they would work studiously on election security. 

If opposition parties had agreed on a government, they would have passed legislation in parliament for election security measures such as the “drag over vote,” which would have enabled citizens to cast their vote anywhere in Turkey or in specific places, he said.

They applied to High Election Board (YSK) for a “drag over vote,” but the election body gave notice that it was impossible, Davutoğlu said, adding the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) were responsible for the legislation’s failure. 

Elaborating on former Mosul Consul General of Turkey Öztürk Yılmaz, who will run in the upcoming parliamentary elections, Davutoğlu said everyone has the right to enter politics. “In a democratic country, everybody can decide to go into politics, of course it has some framework,” he said.

Davutoğlu said the three-term limit for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) will remain in the party charter, but a party commission was working to make amendments which will pave the way for some AKP members to run in the elections.