HDP Spokesperson: 'YSK Made a Coup Against the Will of People'

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The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Spokesperson Saruhan Oluç has held a press conference regarding the election body's decision to not mandate the election winners who were previously discharged from their jobs by Statutory Decrees.

The Supreme Election Council (YSK) announced last night https://bianet.org/english/politics/207350-elected-mayors-discharged-by-statutory-decrees-won-t-be-given-certificates-of-election (April 10) that the runners-up will be mandated for six district municipalities instead of the winners.

In all six municipalities in the provinces of Diyarbakır, Van, Erzurum and Kars, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidates became second in the March 31 local elections.

Oluç claimed that the YSK "set up a trap" against HDP by allowing those people to participate in the elections, then not mandating them when they won.

"A premeditated political conspiracy"

Saying that they will decide their next steps in the meeting of the party's Central Executive Council, Oluç briefly made the following remarks:

"This step the YSK took is nothing but a part of a premeditated political conspiracy. We say very clearly that the YSK has become an obvious part of the conspiracy that was premeditated by the AKP-MHP (the Nationalist Movement Party) alliance.

"YSK set up a trap. You'll say, 'Do judges set up a trap?'. Yes, we witnessed that the judges set up a trap in Turkey. The decision of the YSK has this meaning.

"What does this trap mean? YSK could make those who were discharged upon the Statutory Decrees not nominated. Issuing circulars in every topic that is necessary or not, YSK did not issue a circular about this subject. It could issue a circular and say, 'We don't approve [those who were dismissed upon the Statutory Decrees] to be nominated.'

"YSK became a trustee appointer"

"YSK openly made a coup against the will of the people. There is no right to object to the verdicts of the YSK. you can't go to the court, you can't go to the Constitutional Court. Taking advantage of this, YSK made a coup against the will of the people.

"YSK became a trustee appointer. It clearly appointed a trustee [to the municipalities]. It appointed a trustee by not giving mandate to the one who was elected, but giving it to the second one, the one who lost." (AS/VK)