A pro-Kurdish mayoral candidate won the most votes in the Turkish province of Van – but his election was annulled. The decision cleared the way for Erdogan’s AKP competitor. This causes protests.
The pro-Kurdish party DEM sees itself cheated out of a mayoral position after the local elections in Turkey. The party said its candidate in the eastern Turkish province of Van was denied a certificate of appointment. Instead, the second-place candidate from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP was appointed mayor – who was almost 30 percentage points further behind.
The election was also canceled in a district of Sanliurfa in the southeast of the country. The DEM party also won there on Sunday. According to media reports, the narrowly defeated AKP objected to the result. The pro-Kurdish DEM party and the head of the largest opposition party CHP called for the will of the voters to be respected.
“Civil rights forfeited”
The DEM candidate Abdullah Zeydan was elected mayor of Van province on Sunday with 55 percent. According to his party, his right to stand as a candidate was revoked a few days before the election – on the initiative of the Ministry of Justice. The background is that a court revised a decision from 2022.
At that time, Zeydan applied to regain all civil rights after serving a prison sentence – including those to run for political office. The court approved the application at the time, but now – just two days before the election – withdrew its own decision without informing Zeydan.
Because of the previous conviction, the DEM candidate for Van has forfeited his civil rights, according to a statement published by the election committee. The 52-year-old was convicted in 2016 for alleged propaganda and support for the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).
Water cannons and tear gas against demonstrators
According to media reports, several people in Van took to the streets in solidarity with Zeydan. According to the DHA news agency, the police used water cannons and tear gas against them. There were also demonstrations in Istanbul. In the capital Ankara, DEM co-chairman Tuncer Bakirhan denounced a “political coup.”
The re-elected Istanbul mayor from the main opposition CHP, Ekrem Imamoglu, wrote on Platform X that the decision in Van was unacceptable and a disregard for the will of the citizens.
DEM suspects there are more cases
The incident is reminiscent of the dismissals of pro-Kurdish local politicians in the past: in the 2019 local elections, the pro-Kurdish party won 65 mayoral positions under the name HDP. But the government in Ankara had a large number of politicians removed from office because of terrorism allegations and replaced by receivers. A Council of Europe election observation mission called for an end to this practice on Monday.
The DEM also suspects electoral fraud in several provinces in southeastern Turkey, where it finished behind the AKP. She wants to have the votes counted again in Bitlis, Sirnak and Kars.
With information from Pia Masurczak, ARD Studio Istanbul
Pia Masurczak, ARD Istanbul, tagesschau, April 2nd, 2024 8:16 p.m