Secret documents from an investigation into claims of irregular voter registration in İstanbul’s Büyükçekmece district have been given to the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has asked the election authority to cancel the results of the local election in Büyükçekmece, Sözcü daily reported.
According to the unofficial results of the local polls, Binali Yıldırım, the AKP candidate in İstanbul, lost the election to opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, but İmamoğlu has not yet been certified as the winner due to the AKP objections to the election results. The AKP wants to hold the election again in İstanbul, where İmamoğlu received at least 14,000 more votes than the AKP candidate.
Among other things, the AKP claims voter registries were altered immediately before the election in Büyükçekmece, which prompted an investigation into these claims by the Büyükçekmece Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Secret investigation documents were given by the prosecutor’s office to the AKP İstanbul provincial branch, which then used the documents in its application to the Supreme Election Board (YSK), asking for cancellation of the Büyükçekmece vote.
The documents, which are normally not given to anyone including suspects’ lawyers, include among other things lists of people who are on the voter list but in jail as well as the testimony of suspects and witnesses in the investigation.
The AKP has long been criticized for taking the judiciary under its control and destroying the separation of powers in the country.
