DEM Party reacts to voter registration shifts as local elections approach
The Co-Chair Deputy responsible for local governments of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, Mehmet Rüştü Tiryaki, organized a press conference at his party's headquarters regarding irregularities detected in voter registrations as local elections approach.
Following his statements there made yesterday (December 20), the party's co-chairpersons also expressed their reactions on the same issue today on social media.
DEM Party Co-Chairpersons Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan drew attention to the registration of police and soldiers as mobile voters.
Hatimoğulları stated in a post on X account:
"The government, starting on the path of instructing even the deceased to vote, now seeks to usurp the will of the Kurdish people with mobile voters. Gathering their tricks and scraps would lead us to absurdity. I would like to provide just a few examples:
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The address appearing as the Siirt Provincial Police Department Special Operations Branch Directorate had a voter count of 7 in the May elections, which has increased by 28,314.29%, reaching 1989.
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The number of registered voters at a military facility in Şırnak was 752 in May 2023, with a 692% increase, currently reaching 5,956 voters. Among these voters, 4,368 are newly registered, and none of them are from Şırnak.
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Similarly, at an address appearing as a police guesthouse in Şırnak, the voter count increased by 3,514%, from 14 in May elections to 506. Only 10 out of 506 people were previously voters in the center of Şırnak.
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The address appearing as a military house in Kars had a voter count of 13 in the May 2023 elections, with a 23,015.38% increase, reaching 3,005. Among these individuals, only 10 were previously voters in the center of Kars.
They are once again demonstrating their hostile approach to the Kurdish people and their will by mobilizing the police, gendarmerie, and security bureaucracy to resort to fraud and irregularities.
We will defend the rights of the people against this injustice. We will raise objections, ensuring not even a single suspicious voter is allowed.
Continue with your tricks to steal the people's will. We are in the hearts of the people and will not submit to you; we will prevail."
"Government is attempting to achieve results through voter manipulation"
Bakırhan, on the other hand, said in a post on his X account, "Despite using all state resources and appointing trustees to suppress the will of the people, the government, unable to prevent its failure in Kurdish cities, is now attempting to achieve results through voter manipulation," and provided the following information:
Over 75% of voters in Kurdish cities against replacement of mayors
"You shameless ones! In Siirt Kurtalan, at an address appearing as a guesthouse, there were 13 registered voters in the May 2023 elections, and now 1003 voters are recorded. Of the 1003 voters, 994 were not voters in Kurtalan in the previous election.
We know that you are engaging in fraud and irregularities in many places. We will be right behind you. This fraud and irregularity are theft of people's will. If you had an inner man, it would wither away. If you had morality, it would decay and stink. Your compass is fraud and irregularity; our compass is the people! Do whatever you want. We will be the winners. Our people will be the winners."
DEM Party's Deputy Co-Chair Responsible for Local Governments, Mehmet Rüştü Tiryaki had also stated in a press conference yesterday that in many addresses in Iğdır, Kars, Diyarbakır's Kulp and Hazro, Mardin's Savur and Dargeçit, Batman's Hasankeyf and Gercüş, Hakkari's Çukurca, Şemdinli, Yüksekova, Şırnak center, Uludere, Silopi districts, as well as in Muş, voters have been registered.
The coming local election is scheduled for March 31, 2024.
HEDEP names itself DEM Party
(AS/PE)