The Turkish presidency has prepared a 6-page booklet explaining the Supreme Election Board’s (YSK) ruling to cancel the results of the March 31 İstanbul mayoral election, the Habertürk news website reported on Thursday.
The board’s decision, which was based on the assignment of polling station officials who were not public servants as stipulated by law, came after a number of objections filed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The opposition criticized the ruling for only canceling the results of the mayoral race instead of also annulling the district election results since the same officials were in charge in the polling stations.
The booklet responds to the opposition’s criticism, saying that the YSK only deals with objections and that the AKP specifically requested a cancelation of the metropolitan mayor election results.
It also argues that the YSK only found 42,000 suspicious votes in 123 ballot boxes, which only could affect the metropolitan mayoral election, narrowly won by the opposition on March 31.
The booklet was also criticized by the opposition on social media because President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the chair of the ruling AKP and used presidential resources for his party’s politics.
