Baku, Azerbaijan, April 9
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
The Turkish Central Election Commission (CEC) rejected the demand of the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party to recount the votes in several districts of Istanbul during the municipal elections, Trend reports referring to the Turkish media on April 9.
While commenting on this step, the party said that this was the gross violation of the voters’ rights.
"The ruling party proved the falsification of the election results in Istanbul,” the party said. “But for some reason, the CEC rejected the demand for election recount."
The municipal election results in Istanbul were almost completely rigged, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier.
He noted that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) appealed to the Turkish Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) to identify the perpetrators.
Meanwhile, the Justice and Development Party presented facts of falsification of 11,000 votes in Istanbul in favour of the candidate of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Ekrem Imamoglu.
Earlier, Bayram Senocak, head of the Istanbul branch of the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), stated that the ruling party has evidence of the election results in Istanbul being falsified in favor of candidate of the opposition Republican People's Party Ekrem Imamoglu.
Imamoglu gained 4.159 million votes, while Yildirim got 4.131 million votes in Istanbul.
The coalition of the ruling party and the Nationalist Movement Party gained 51.67 percent of votes in the municipal elections throughout the country.
Following the elections, candidate of the Republican People’s Party Mansur Yavas became mayor of Ankara.
Thirteen political parties took part in the municipal elections held March 31. These included the Felicity Party (SP), the Independent Turkey Party (Bağımsız Türkiye Partisi), the Communist Party of Turkey (Türkiye Komünist Partisi), the Patriotic Party (Vatan Partisi), the Great Unity Party (Büyük Birlik Partisi), Free Cause Party (Hür Dava Partisi), Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi), Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi), Democratic Party (Demokrat Parti), Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi), Iyi Party (İYİ Parti), Peoples’ Democratic Party (Halkların Demokratik Partisi) and Democratic Left Party (Demokratik Sol Parti).
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