Supreme Election Council Announces Justified Ruling on Annulment of İstanbul Elections

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The Supreme Election Council (YSK) has announced its justified ruling on the annulment of İstanbul Metropolitan Mayoral elections.

Released on the official website of the YSK yesterday (May 22), the justifed ruling no. 2019-4219 has mostly consisted of the objections submitted to the Council by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its ally in the People's Alliance, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

While 37 pages of 250-page justified ruling have been allocated to dissenting opinions, the evaluations as to the ruling have been shared in 11 pages.

The justified ruling of the elections annulled on May 6 has been written in 16 days and was published on the website of the YSK last evening.

YSK Chair: No incompatibility to cause annulment

The ruling of annulment was given by a vote of seven members against four. YSK Chair Sadi Güven was also among the members who voted against the annulment of İstanbul Metropolitan Mayoral elections.

In his dissenting opinion annexed to the justified ruling, Güven has stated that "no incompatibility that would lead to annulment of elections has been seen" and added, "It was not possible [for me] to agree to the annulment of elections due to the unlawful formation of balloting committees."

"Moreover, considering that the unsigned vote counting tables and ballot box result minutes accord with each other, no incompatibility to be a cause for the annulment of elections has been detected", Güven has further indicated.

What does the justified ruling say?

In the justified ruling of the YSK, it has been stated that a total of 93 thousand 558 public officers were needed to work in balloting committees in March 31 local elections and there were 220 thousand public officers in İstanbul available to be on duty on the day of election.

In the related part of the ruling, it has been further underlined that even though the main clause of the law has been violated by not appointing public officers at 2 thousand 333 ballot boxes across İstanbul and there was no reason to apply the exception clauses of the law in question, it has still not been considered to suffice in itself to annul the elections.

'Irregularity' regarding 9 people in total

In the justified ruling, it has been indicated, "Six people discharged from civil service by Statutory Decrees became balloting committee chairs and three people who were not public officers became balloting committee members."

Reiterating that the number of voters who cast votes in 754 ballot boxes, whose committee chairs were determined in an unlawful manner, was 212 thousand 276 and reminding that the margin of votes between the top two candidates was 13 thousand 729, the justified ruling has concluded that this situation had an impact on the election results.

Only 706 restricted voters cast votes

In the ruling, it has been stated that there were no vote counting tables in 18 ballot boxes and no signatures of balloting committees in 90 ballot boxes in İstanbul, accounting for 30 thousand 281 votes in total.

After the examinations of the YSK, it has been identified that 377 restricted voters and 224 voters with mental disabilities cast votes in İstanbul elections.

In six ballot boxes, votes were cast in the name of deceased voters; in 41 ballot boxes, in the name of arrestees and convicts of negligent crimes; in 58 ballot boxes, in the name of convicts in penal institutions.

The ruling has further indicated that 706 people who were not eligible to vote went to the ballot boxes in March 31 local elections in İstanbul.

İstanbul election rerun on June 23

In its verdict dated May 6, the YSK has ruled that Metropolitan Mayoral Elections in İstanbul shall be repeated.

The certificate of election of CHP's Ekrem İmamoğlu, who won the election according to unofficial results, has been revoked. Until the repeat elections on June 23, Governor of İstanbul Ali Yerlikaya will be the Deputy Mayor.

YSK Chair Sadi Güven has also announced that the same voters will cast votes in repeat elections. (AS/SD)