On Sunday, November 1, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) claimed that it had won a majority of seats in parliament. Voting registration and voter turnout numbers prove—beyond any doubt—that Erdoğan cheated.
A man holds scarves bearing the names and images of Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (R) and President Tayyip Erdogan as supporters of the AK Party gather to wait for the arrival of Davutoglu in Istanbul, Turkey November 3, 2015. REUTERS/Murad Sezer.
Over at Commentary, I explain, but here’s the problem in a nutshell.
In Turkey, every citizen receives a citizen identification number at birth which automatically registers them to vote when they turn 18. Below are the official numbers of registered voters by election year:
- 2002: 41.4 million
- 2007: 42.8 million
- 2011: 52.8 million
- June 2015: 54.8 million
- November 2015: 56.9 million
In five months, voter rolls increased by more than two million, the same increase as over the four previous years. In addition, voter participation in both elections this year hovered in the 85-86% range, and yet the November elections saw an additional 1.8 million votes cast.
So what happened? It appears that AKP supporters were registered at multiple sites and so, in effect, voted two or more times. Turkey’s High Election Council (Yüksek Seçim Kurulu, YSK) handles all complaints. Once they issue a decision, by law it cannot be litigated. They are no longer independent, however, but under the thumb of Erdoğan.
Numbers don’t lie. Erdoğan stole this election, plain and simple.
from AEI » Latest Content http://ift.tt/1MhhbWM
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