The head of the Turkish Supreme Election Commission, Ahmed Yanar, revealed that the non-final results of the general and presidential elections scheduled for tomorrow (Sunday) will be announced on the evening of polling day. The Anatolia News Agency quoted today (Friday) Yanar as saying: The Authority has completed its preparations for the general and presidential elections scheduled for Sunday, and has taken all measures to maintain the integrity of the voting process. And he considered that the upcoming elections constitute an important turning point in the history of Turkish democracy, as it witnesses the largest participation of political parties ever. He pointed out that the authority took all measures related to power outages or electronic attacks during polling and vote counting. He explained that the authority has completed the distribution of electoral cards to polling stations.
With regard to polling stations in the earthquake zone, he stated that the authority had taken measures to set up voting boxes inside caravans (prefabricated houses) that were established in the gardens of the schools affected by the earthquake. He added that the authority will allow voters who left the earthquake zone to vote in the cities where they currently reside.
Turkey is scheduled to witness (Sunday) parliamentary and presidential elections, in which the current President Recep Erdogan, a candidate for the People’s Alliance, Kamal Kilicdaroglu for the Ummah Alliance, and Sinan Ogan, a candidate for the Grandfathers Alliance, will compete.
For his part, President Erdogan stated that they will start Turkey’s centennial stage after May 14. He said in a tweet on Twitter that, over the past 21 years, they have established the infrastructure in all fields in preparation for the centenary of Turkey.
He added, “As we have done it for 21 years, we will succeed again with your support and prayers.” Erdogan stressed that they will continue to provide services and investments to Turkey and its cities, and to 85 million citizens.
The candidate for the presidential race, Muharram Ince, withdrew yesterday (Thursday), and attributed his withdrawal to what he described as a “moral assassination” of his person via the Internet, but he did not disclose more details.
Meanwhile, Kilicdaroglu accused Turkey’s “Russian friends” of being responsible for spreading deepfakes. And he said in a tweet on Twitter yesterday evening, in both the Turkish and Russian languages, “If you want our friendship to continue after May 15th, then raise your hands from the Turkish state. We still prefer cooperation and friendship.
The Kremlin has strongly denied the accusations made by Kilicdaroglu regarding interference in the Turkish elections.
Today (Friday), the Kremlin described the allegations that Russia is interfering in the Turkish presidential elections as false and fabricated by liars. His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that the people who reported such allegations to Kilicdaar were liars, and that Russia highly valued its relations with Turkey.
