Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK) has denied an application by the opposition to cancel the results and re-run all segments of the local İstanbul elections instead of only the mayoral race as its decision ordered, the Diken news website reported on Tuesday.
The appeal was filed by the İyi (Good) Party, which asked the YSK to either reverse its decision on Monday to cancel the results of İstanbul mayoral election or extend the scope of its decision to include districts and city councils as well.
The YSK’s decision was made upon applications by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) due to alleged irregularities concerning the assignment of polling station officials.
The cancelation, however, was apparently limited to the mayoral election, which drew criticism from opposition politicians who pointed out the inconsistency since the same polling clerks monitored all of the ballot boxes.
The issue was also noted by Erik Weststrate, the deputy head of mission of the Dutch Embassy in Ankara, who tweeted, “Genuine question: If the problem was chairs of the ballot boxes, why was out of three elections held simultaneously only the municipal mayor election cancelled?”