AKP Finds ‘Irregularities’ in İstanbul and Ankara: Some Voted for Us in Districts but Not in City

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The time to appeal against the results of the March 31 local election expired at 3 p.m. today (April 2). The parties appealed against the results at the election councils.

The main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) İstanbul Provincial Chairpersonship said, "Our law commission has completed our last objections. When these appeals are concluded, votes of our Mayor of the Metropolitan Municipality Ekrem İmamoğlu and the difference between his closest rival will increase."

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) provincial chairs for the capital Ankara and İstanbul also said that they appealed against the results at the councils.

"There are either zero votes or one vote"

AKP Ankara Provincial Chair Hakan Han Özcan claimed that they found "many irregularities," one of them was people voting for the AKP for the district municipalities but do not vote for the party for the Metropolitan Municipality.

"There are irregularities we found in 3,127 ballots. We made our objections in 25 districts in Ankara. In these 3,127 ballot boxes we found, let's say the district municipality has 100 votes, there are 117 votes for the municipal council, but only one vote or zero votes for the Metropolitan Municipality."

"There are 25 thousand invalid votes in one ballot box"

AKP İstanbul Provincial Chair Bayram Şenocak also made a statement on the appeals.

"We delivered our objections to 39 district election councils. We determined irregularities and fraud that are against the regulations. We are facing 319,570 invalid votes, which can influence the outcome of the elections.

"We determined 25 thousand invalid votes in just one ballot box. [On average, there are 250 votes in a ballot box. The maximum number of voters registered for a single ballot box is 350.]

"In the results minute of a ballot box, the votes for Binali Yıldırım was recorded as 127. It was recorded as 127 as well on the chart. The officers who enter these data at the district election council recorded it as zero.

"I am talking about 2,675 votes that we found. These seem as zero at the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) now.

"I invite the district election council to make more efforts in terms of managing this process."

More votes for İmamoğlu after recount

CHP's mayoral candidate for Kadıköy district in İstanbul, Şerdil Dara Odabaşı, said in a tweet that Ekrem İmamoğlu's votes were increased by 424 after a recount. (AS/VK)