How will election safety be ensured in earthquake-hit regions?

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While May 14 elections are approaching new initiatives such as Türkiye Gönüllüleri (Volunteers for Turkey) follow the citizen organization Oy ve Ötesi (Vote and ) that was set up in order to secure election safety. The Movement for the Protection of the Ballot Boxws is getting stronger every day. 

So is it possible to cheat in the elections in Turkey? What should the political parties and citizens do for election safety?

The answer comes from Seçil Türkkan who wrote a book called "Protecting the Ballot Boxes for Election Safety." 

"You can first vote and then go and observe the counting of the votes at the ballot box where you voted. And the political parties should meet the needs and ensure the security of their poll watchers."

We talked to Türkkan who says, "If you imprison democracy only to the ballot box then voting and protecting the ballot boxes turns into a political action," about election safety.

Türkkan also believes that any news on the media saying that it will be a cheated election makes people feel sluggish. The really important thing is not to give up protecting the ballot boxes. 

Let us first start with Türkkan's book. How did "Protecting the Ballot Boxes for Election Safety" emerge? What made it necessary?

It first emerged out of what I needed. I started a little out of curiosity and with excitement. Of course, the foundations were laid in 2018, with the Fair Election Platform marking the election that year. When I saw that I understood that it is important for large platforms like that one, thus civil society organizations to work with the political parties. 

The Fair Election Platform was the starting point for me, but even before that there was the "Oy ve Ötesi" since 2014. When we looked at its structure, its history, and what it was and what it has become, we see that in fact Oy ve Ötesi was established after the Gezi Park protests. Our first interview in the book is with them. 

I had the idea of writing this book first in 2018 and I started the interviews. But when the election agenda was over, I stopped it thinking it may not be interesting for the people. 

Then when I talked to Sercan Çelebi, he told me, "We founded Oy ve Ötesi because we wanted to do something after Gezi." In fact, this shows that people need something. People are concerned about election safety. Something should be done here. 

According to a figure that Çelebi gave me, the research they made in that period showed that 70 percent of the society did not trust the safety of the ballot boxes. This includes those who vote for the ruling party. I tried to understand where this distrust comes from. I discovered then that the movement for the protection of ballot boxes is an independent movement. 

It was a movement that was born after Gezi which infiltrated our lives through all these fractures, which the people embraced, and created with their own hands. It is kind of a movement to build their own democracy. This all then turned into a book. 

"Action of inaction..."

"I would like to hear what those fractures were, and who you talked to"

There were the actions by the Saturday mothers/people in Taksim that everybody knew, everybody was used to. It continued for 700 weeks. However, on the 700th week, it was banned. They were squizzed to the street in front of the Human Rights Association. 

Taking this as the starting point, these fractures point at a period when the people were no longer able to protest on the streets. Social movements nearly came to a stop and a period when almost one tweet was punished with imprisonment. And the Movement for the Protection of Ballot Boxes has become an unorganized organization, an inactive action, a protest without protest. 

If you imprison democracy into the ballot box, voting and protecting the ballot boxes turns into an action. That was what we saw. This was the fracture. 

"Polls are manipulative"

Who did you talk to and what did they tell you?

I interviewed 12 people. All were poll watchers. I tried to ensure diversity. I wanted them to be representative. There are also three academicians who shared their views. So it is a book made up of 15 interviews. In the interviews, the academicians tell us "why we are at this point." 

For instance, Professor Ali Çarkoğlu has two important suggestions for the political parties. One of them is, he says, "the dominant mood makes you win the elections." Whoever creates the dominant mood wins the elections he thinks. 

The next thing he says is that political parties should cooperate with volunteers. Another academician, Mert Moral says that we should not trust the polls and that they are manipulative. He also tells that all portions of society came to hate one another due to the polarization. 

In fact, there should be a transition between political parties, but now there will be transitions between those who have not decided about their votes. 

Today, all political parties have a fixed amount of votes. Here the Republican People'sParty (CHP) can win some voters from the Justice and Development Party (AKP), at least among those who do not hate them. And the other academician was Doğan Çetinkaya.  

Have you met anyone from AKP or MHP (the Nationalist Movement Party)?

In fact, I wanted to talk to them so much, I of course called also the AKP and MHP poll watchers. But after they saw my questions we somehow lost contact. They did not want to talk. 

So we were not able to learn if or not the people supporting the ruling block also worry about election safety. We had to suffice with the answers of those from the opposition. 

Then let us ask, what did the opposition think?

They are telling that people are doing much more now, especially after the local elections when the opposition won the İstanbul municipality. The voters of the ruling party are also much more willing to work for election safety. 

There are different organizations in this movement for election safety. What do you think?

"Pluralism is always good," this is something that we know. But we have to understand where all these movements came from.

We understand that it was not only those in power who fed this feeling of insecurity. It has also been the attitude of the opposition until recently. At least until 2018, I can say. 

Election safety was of course on the agenda of the opposition parties. Protecting the ballot boxes is not something newly invited, but before political parties used to appoint people.  

The other part is the government not being transparent. This is what we cannot give up telling all. If it is an institution that knows that people are concerned, those in power have to do something about it. We see that not much is being done in order to stop people's worries. 

Therefore these movements will continue. If you imprison democracy only in the ballot box, then protecting the ballot box will continue as an action. 

"The last thing to do is to distance from the ballot boxes"

May 14 elections are coming. How will election security be secured?

Firstly, we should tell the political parties. They have to inform the public about the measures they take and the work they do for election security with the people and this is very important. This is important for creating a dominant mood and helping people feel safe. 

And again, political institutions have to cooperate with volunteers at this moment. But there is also the issue of extraordinary votes. In metropolitan cities, people can be appointed or can volunteer for election security. There is not so much problem. But when we say extraordinary votes we think of places where volunteers or party representatives cannot go. 

We know that there were twenty-five thousand ballot boxes that could not be watched in 2018. It is important who will be responsible for these 25 thousand ballot boxes. 

These are located predominantly in the Middle Anatolian, Middle Blacksea regions, and some Kurdish and Arab majority provinces. 

There are two stories in the book. The stories of Deniz Özgür and Güneş. Both return from Urfa almost beaten up. 

It is up to the political parties to ensure the safety of those they appoint and the volunteers. 

And I would like to warn people. The media loves high ratings. Therefore there are going to be many news in the coming days that say they are going to cheat in the elections. We have to stop listening to these. Because this will push people to distance themselves from the ballot boxes. 

But this is the last thing we should do. What people should do is vote, and protect the ballot boxes if possible. 

You can be present while the votes are being counted in the ballot box where you voted. This is your legal right. If it is not possible for you to volunteer, you can do this. To be present during the counting in the evening. 

There is also the problem of election safety in earthquake-hit regions... 

This is an important issue. You are right. This is why the political parties have to make detailed statements. This is not an organization that volunteers can make by themselves, it is difficult. 

Some claim that it is very difficult to cheat in elections in Turkey. How far is this correct?

I understand, speaking to all the experts during the writing of this book, that Turkey has a good election law. 

And there are say a hundred people in a neighborhood. They cast their votes. A hundred signatures and hundred votes were cast. This much. Some officers appointed at the ballot box can also cast their votes there. But it should be this much. So if there are more votes or fewer, votes are burnt or something. Therefore it is a very technical issue. 

Therefore we can say that it is not very very difficult and it is not very easy to cheat. But the main problem may be extraordinary votes, as I mentioned before. Something should be done to prevent any such extraordinary votes. (EMK/PE)