The decision of Turkey’s top election board for a rerun of the local polls in Istanbul will lift the shadow on the mayoral elections in the city and strengthen democracy, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, noting that irregularities and other breaches of law cast a shadow on the will of the people.

“The will of nearly 15,000 people who voted for the AK Party has been usurped, with mistakes far greater than by any other party,” Erdoğan told a weekly parliamentary meeting of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on Tuesday.

The president said that Turkey is a democracy governed by the rule of law and that his party would have abided the ruling of the Supreme Election Council (YSK) if they had decided to not cancel the polls. He noted that the YSK’s decision is an important step in strengthening Turkey’s democracy.

“The fact that 20,000 out of 62,000 balloting committee members are not public workers increased our doubts; no one can say that one-third of balloting committee members, even chairs, appointed against the law was an innocent mistake,” Erdoğan said.

The president noted that the proof documents provided by the AK Party is quite solid and based on concrete evidence “which cannot be disputed” and added that they believe there was organized corruption and irregularities.

If the government did not bring into account the “thieves” who stole the “will of the people” at the ballot box, the people would demand an explanation from them, Erdoğan added.

He said that if his government did not bring to account the “thieves” who stole the “national will” at the ballot box, “our people will demand an explanation from us.”

Meanwhile, Erdoğan said AK Party’s candidate Binali Yıldırım would run again on June 23 and that Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya will temporarily act as mayor until the elections are repeated.

Source:Dailysabah.com