How do Legists and Politicians React to Justified Ruling on Annulled İstanbul Elections?

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The Supreme Election Council (YSK) announced its justified ruling on the annulment of İstanbul Metropolitan Mayoral elections yesterday (May 22). While the lawyers have defined the ruling of the Council as "absolute unlawfulness", politicians from the opposition parties have referred to the justified ruling as "lacking justifications".

CLICK - YSK Announces Ruling on Annulment of İstanbul Elections

We have compiled how legal experts, lawyers and politicians have reacted to the 250-page justified ruling of the YSK on the annulment of İstanbul Metropolitan Mayoral elections:

Aslı Kazan: Justification-part is only 12 pages

Posting a message on his Twitter account, Prof. Dr. Turgut Tarhanlı, the Dean of the Faculty of Law at İstanbul Bilgi University, has stated that with the related ruling of the YSK, the right to vote and to be elected has been reduced to a 'formal matter" rather than considering it a human right.

Lawyer Aslı Kazan has also made a statement on Twitter regarding the justified ruling of the YSK. Kazan has underlined that the Council is making fun of the voters and has set a trap for the voters' will with this ruling.

"The justified ruling of the YSK regarding the annulment of March 31 local elections was announced 16 days later today. They said that a detailed ruling was being written and that's why the announcement of the ruling took so long. In fact, the justifications for annulling the will of 16 million people are explained in just 12 pages. They did not even write one page a day.

'There is everything except for law'

"The ruling consists of 250 pages. The first 200 pages of the ruling are allocated to the petition of annulment submitted by the AKP and the answers of district election councils to the YSK. The justification for the annulment of elections is stated between the pages of 200 and 212. The dissenting opinions are expressed between the pages 212 and 250.

"As a matter of fact, there are 12-page justification and 38-page dissenting opinions. What we understand from the detailed ruling of the YSK is that seven members of the Council have set a trap for voters' will.

"The detailed ruling of the YSK has once again showed that the fact that a document is signed by judges is not in itself enough to make it 'a lawful judgement.' There is everything in the document undersigned by the YSK members, except for the law."

Turgut Kazan: Absolute unlawfulness

While lawyer Celal Ülgen has defined the YSK ruling on annulled İstanbul Metropolitan Mayoral elections as "grave" in his Twitter post, former Chair of İstanbul Bar Association Turgut Kazan has referred to the ruling of annulment as "absolute unlawfulness."

İmamoğlu: Mountain has brought forth a mouse

Politicians from both the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and opposition parties have also commented on the justified ruling of the YSK on annulled İstanbul elections.

Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor-elect of İstanbul from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) according to unofficial results and whose certificate of election has been revoked after the annulment of the elections, has stated, "The mountain has brought forth a mouse. There is not even a single expression of 'stealing' in the ruling."

"It is an unjustified ruling, not a justified one. You will destroy people's feelings for justice with this ruling. They will apologize. I don't know if they will repent or not, it is up to them." İmamoğlu has stated further and added:

"They confronted Turkey with an hardship. What we say is this: We will get back what was entrusted to us. The will of 16 million has been seized."

Yıldırım: 'Votes were stolen' is colloquial language

As for Binali Yıldırım, the candidate of People's Alliance from the ruling AKP, has made the following remarks:

"Of course, they have not written 'Votes were stolen' in the justified ruling. We say it in colloquial language.

"OK, let's say that the votes were not stolen. But, how did the margin of votes, which was first announced as 29 thousand 400, fall to 13 thousand 700, then?"

Pervin Buldan: How will they explain it?

Commenting on the justified ruling on her Twitter account, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Pervin Buldan has said,

"Announcing a justified ruling without putting forward any justifications, the YSK has gone down in history as a black mark."

"How will they explain that there is not a single justification in the 250-page justified ruling?", Buldan has asked further.

İYİ Party: There is no stealing or theft

İYİ Party Vice Chair Hasan Seymen has also commented, "The YSK has announced its justified ruling. There is not stealing, stolen votes or theft." (EMK/PT/SD)