Police officers refused to show special document while voting in Turkey’s 2019 local elections

Reports of fraud flow from several localities: Police officers refused to show special document and some voters started to open vote
Sunday, 31 March 2019 13:05

Voting procedures for Turkey’s local elections in the Halfeti district of Turkey’s Şanlıurfa began with fraud. 3,187 voters who were moved to Halfeti only two months before the elections started to vote at the ballot box 1094 where also an unexpectedly large number of riot police officers were seen to vote, who were brought from the city of Mersin.

It was reported that the police officers did not present the special document which is normally given to public officers when they have to vote at a box other than they have been allocated to.

It was also seen that voters had been brought to Halfeti from neighboring cities in police vehicles since last night. On the other hand, armored police buses have been straying the streets, and polling clerks and observers of the pro-Kurdish HDP party have been attempted to be taken out of election halls in schools visited by Turkey’s ruling AKP party’s Mayoral Trustee Şeref Albayrak.

It was also reported that, in Hilallı, a rural area of the district, people started to take open votes although it is illegal. The voting procedure has been paused after lawyers’ warnings to police officers to abide by the law turned into an argument.