Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK) has found inappropriate the parliamentary candidacy of a Republican People’s Party (CHP) official from Edirne on the grounds that he was convicted of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to a statement from the CHP Edirne provincial branch.
CHP official Ediz Ün was in second place on the CHP candidate list for Parliament in Edirne.
The political parties submitted their candidate lists to the YSK on Tuesday.
Turkey will hold snap presidential and general elections on June 24.
In a written statement on Thursday, CHP Edirne provincial branch head Fevzi Pekcanlı said the YSK found Ün’s candidacy inappropriate because he was earlier given a one-year jail sentence on charges of insulting the president, Erdoğan.
Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey, according to the controversial Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). Whoever insults the president can face up to four years in prison, a sentence that can be increased if the crime was committed through the mass media.
Hundreds of people in Turkey including even high school students face charges of insulting President Erdoğan. The slightest criticism is considered insult, and there has been a rise in the number of cases in which people inform on others claiming that they insulted the president, the government or government officials.