Oran to Appeal to ECHR on Elections

Prof. Dr. Baskin Oran was an independent candidate in the 2nd constituency of Istanbul, but was not elected. He had appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) because of the difficulties that independent candidates face in Turkey.

In a telephone interview with the NTV station on 31 July, he said: "We are not interested in money. But the appeal is important in order to improve the democratic standards in the country."

Border poll stations not democratic

Oran's lawyer, Prof. Mehmet Semi Gemalmaz, has appealed because people who voted at the borders were unable to vote for Oran. This, he argued, violates the first additional protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights.

In another appeal, a voter who had come to Turkey to vote, has complained because he was not able to vote for independent candidates at the border poll station.

The ballot papers handed out at the borders do not have any independent candidates written on them, but the border votes are divided among the provinces of Turkey.

Independent Suvagci lost to AKP

This has led to the highly controversial announcement by the Supreme Electoral Board (YSK) that an independent candidate in Hakkari, Sebahattin Suvagci, who had initially won a seat, has to step back in favour of a candidate of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). After the "border votes" had been added, the AKP had more votes than Suvagci.

Prof. Dr. Ahmet Insel evaluated this controversy in the Radikal newspaper of last Sunday, claiming that if Suvagci appealed to the ECHR, Turkey would be found in the wrong:

"In Hakkari, independent candidate Sebahattin Suvagci had 45 votes more than AKP candidate Abdulmuttalip Özbek and it had been announced inofficially that he had won one of the province's three seats in parliament. Then, 232 "border votes" were added to the Hakkari votes, and then the AKP candidate passed the independent one. Here you have effective discrimination..." (EÖ/EÜ/AG)