Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed almost all local election results in Istanbul were unlawful. Erdoğan added documents and video footage would be presented as evidence.
Erdoğan said his party (AKP) has identified organised activities intended to rig the election results and when applying to Supreme Elections Council (YSK) documents proving what kind of fraud and where it was committed will be submitted. “Empty fields were shown as electoral addresses. Would there be a better evidence than that?” Erdoğan told the reporters at the airport ahead of his departure from Istanbul to Moscow. Erdoğan reminded there were 320 – 330 thousand invalid ballot papers and continued:
“If you say ‘We cannot count them’ then we will go one step further. There are things which can be done within law and it is our right to expect the supreme electoral council to act.
There are precedences in Ağrı and Yalova. In the U.S., a 1 percent controversial vote led to the repetition of the elections.
In Istanbul where there are more than 10 million voters. No one should get pumped up by saying ‘I won by 13-14 thousand votes’. To have clarity in Istanbul we should make our appeals. Which are the institutions to appeal? Town and city electoral councils and finally Supreme Electoral Council. After all the appeals are made, we will accept the results.”
