Republican People’s Party (CHP) presidential candidate Muharrem İnce on Monday posted a statement on Twitter, responding to claims that suggested he was “silenced” on the night of the June 24 elections.
“I said I would be in front of the [Supreme Election Board] YSK building with 50,000 lawyers if they decided to treat unsealed ballots as valid, like they did in the April 16 referendum [2017],” İnce wrote.
“The YSK didn’t take such a decision. The decisions they made that night were not suspicious and did not affect the results. That’s why I didn’t go in front of the building and didn’t call for someone else to go,” he added.
After casting his ballot on June 24 İnce held a press conference in front of the YSK building and warned members of the board to be fair.
After the briefing, though, he was not seen on TV and did not release a statement through any medium, sparking a discussion among CHP supporters, some of whom thought İnce had somehow been silenced that night.
Video footage showing a person whispering in İnce’s ear during the June 24 press conference was considered evidence of a threat being made.
According to İnce that person was Mehmet Hadimi Yakupoğlu, the CHP’s YSK representative.
“Even our representative’s remarks on the election whispered in my ear have become part of the conspiracy,” İnce said.
He also said he followed the election results in the presence of CHP deputies Engin Altay and Yaşar Tüzün along with family members.
“Everything written, shared or said about me being silenced, threatened, abducted or in a position that did not allow me to make a statement is a lie,” İnce said.