The CHP has applied to the SEC for the cancellation of the referendum

Declaring the deeming by the Supreme Election Council (SEC) of unstamped votes as being valid to be illegal, the CHP has applied for the cancellation of the referendum. CHP Deputy General Chair Bülent Tezcan has applied to the SEC and called for the referendum to be cancelled. Tezcan had the following to say after his application:

Campaigning was conducted in an environment under state of emergency conditions in which canvassing for ‘No’ was forbidden but canvassing for ‘Yes’ was permitted. Basically, the people’s campaign was victorious over the state campaign. All those with a clean conscience sense that ‘No’ was victorious.

This poll has added another type of election to our history. We have seen big stick elections. This was the stampless election. The results that until now have been announced are illegitimate. As they stand, they can take effect but they will never be legitimate. We have submitted an objection petition against this illegitimate result. We want the referendum to be cancelled. The only thing that will lend the referendum legitimacy is the cancellation of this referendum.

In this referendum, there was a shortfall of ballot slips in the morning like we have never seen in any election. The SEC told us that this was a packaging error. If you take the shortfall in ballot slips supplied in the morning to polling stations along with the resolution that unstamped votes would be counted as valid, organised vote theft is involved.

THERE CAN BE NO RECOUNT. IT MUST BE CANCELLED

It is impossible to put this poll right by holding a recount. There is only thing that can be done: for this referendum that has lost its legitimacy to be cancelled.

This poll will go down in our history as an election in which the SEC has said through its actions: the power that sent us here wanted this.

THE CHP’S AKSÜNGER'S MEETING WITH THE SEC

CHP Deputy General Chair Erdal Aksünger went to the YSK today at 12.30 hours. Aksünger noted, ‘I am going to have it out with SEC Chair Sadi Güven’ in the comment he made prior to the visit, and said, ‘There are currently violations coming in to us from more than ten thousand schools. Violations were experienced at 10,900 out of 57,000 schools. The affair has now moved onto a different dimension. These issues now go beyond individual objections. The people will most certainly also make individual objections; the people have such a right. Everyone will exercise their right of resistance arising under the constitution and statute.

The CHP delegation that met with SEC Chair Güven made comments on their way out.

CHP Deputy General Chair Aksünger, stating that today was an important day for them, said, ‘Our colleagues will lodge our objections relating to full illegality. Our petitions will come here by the afternoon. Today, we basically discussed what we object to and, in a technical sense, what we object to. The Supreme Election Council will most certainly convene and pass a decision on this matter. Our first goal from our position – there are three or four issues that raise very serious suspicions of impropriety and it is compelling that these be resolved. The most important issue to which we attach importance are the illegal acts committed on polling day and to which we have objected. These from our viewpoint are issues that are removed from the problems of a technical nature. A whole host of difficulties were experienced in the east and southeast and we will file crime reports with public prosecutors’ offices into these. We have documented that people were permitted to vote in place of certain voters. We will complain about thousands of ballot boxes and we will file crime reports.’

THERE ARE QUESTION MARKS IN PEOPLE’S MINDS

The CHP’s Erdal Aksünger, arguing that there are also question marks in people’s minds, commented, ‘We have come here to seek society’s rights. We have not come here solely to seek No’s right. We respect everyone’s votes in full. I was saying this a little earlier at a ballot box in Çankaya where there was this kind of problem from which more than 240 “No” votes emerged, particularly because they were unstamped, and I said they must also be cancelled. I mean, we have not come here for an issue that is for our own benefit. We have come here for the provisions of statute to be applied as they are laid down. But, we see serious intimidation in place at the moment. The state is in fact being intimidatory against the people at the moment. This is what we see. We will endeavour by some means to shed light on all the impropriety and points over which doubt has been cast. Our first expectation of the Supreme Election Council is for all these fraudulent acts to be annulled, for the necessary action to be put in place and for it to cancel the referendum.’

CITIZENS HAVE ALSO SUBMITTED PETITIONS

On the other hand, citizens who have gathered in front of the SEC and want the referendum to be cancelled have formed long queues with their petitions in their hands and continue to wait at the entrance to the building. With the crowd having built up, the police have set up a barricade in front of the SEC.