Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK) has announced that a total of 68,017 people will not be able to vote in İstanbul’s mayoral election scheduled for June 23, the Diken news website reported on Thursday.
The group includes men fulfilling their compulsory military service, people who have been stripped of citizenship, the deceased, individuals currently serving prison sentences and people restricted by law such as those suffering from mental health issues and ex-convicts who served a year or more in prison.
The YSK said the list of people was identified based on civil registry data as of June 18.
The country’s largest city is getting ready to vote this Sunday in a re-run of the mayoral election of March 31 which resulted in a narrow opposition victory that was later canceled by the YSK upon objections filed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
One of the objections raised by AKP officials was that around 5,000 people who were restricted by law voted even though they should not have been allowed to.