Sadi Güven, the president of Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK), on Tuesday ruled out reports of fake and repetitive voters in the electoral lists for upcoming local elections on March 31.
“There is no imaginary, repetitive or fake voters registered in the system,” Güven said in a statement amid increasing reports of fraud across Turkey.
According to Güven, there are currently 57,930 985 voters registered in the country. He added that the YSK investigated more than 6,000 voters over the age of 100 and removed deceased voters from their database.
Last week, a supposedly 165-year-old Turkish woman from the Central Anatolian city of Kayseri made it into the voter lists announced by the YSK, main opposition deputy Onursal Adıgüzel had said, criticizing the laxness of the board and claiming possible election fraud as local polls approach.
According to the YSK lists, Ayşe Ekici, who would be the oldest voter on earth, would exercise her right to cast a ballot for the first time, Adıgüzel said. In the lists were also a 149-year-old man, Zülfü, and a 148-year-old woman, another Ayşe, whose last names were not given.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Adıgüzel mentioned some irregularities at a press conference in parliament.
He also said that in some districts the number of registered voters had doubled since the parliamentary and presidential elections of June 2018.
The Orta district of Çankırı province and the Çamlıdere district of Ankara province increased their voters by some 95 percent and 90 percent, respectively.
There were also reports showing that an apartment had 40 registered voters and a construction site had 43. Even a stadium was listed as the address of 15 voters.
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been accused of rigging the elections since a narrowly backed referendum in 2017.