Electoral board's move to cause serious legitimacy problem

A last-minute decision by Turkey's electoral board to accept unstamped ballots as valid votes will cause a serious legitimacy problem in Sunday's referendum
Sunday, 16 April 2017 18:25

A last-minute decision by Turkey's electoral board to accept unstamped ballots as valid votes will cause a serious legitimacy problem in Sunday's referendum.

A statement on the High Electoral Board's (YSK) website minutes before polls closed said it would count ballots that had not been stamped by its officials as valid unless they could be proved fraudulent, citing a high number of complaints that YSK officials at polling stations had failed to stamp them.

Yet the laws contradict YSK’s implementation. Section 94 of the Act on General Electoral Provisions and the Electoral Cast says: "The head of the electoral board appointed to the ballot box determines the name, surname and age of the voter along with his or her father's name as indicated in his or her passport. The voter then proceeds to cast his or her vote in a secret polling station with the ballot provided and sealed by the electoral board, which shall then be put in an envelope."