IZMIR, Turkey — With less than 96 hours to the ballot boxes opening, Turkey’s election drama is in full swing — with gunshots, warnings of online censorship and election rigging, mobilization of volunteers and a standoff between Turkey’s Interior Ministry and Supreme Elections Board.
Turkey’s electoral watchdog, which often comes under the opposition’s fire for favoring the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has rejected the Interior Ministry’s request for information on the location of ballot boxes, their numbers and the number of voters at each ballot box.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said he wanted the information for a new online election monitoring system at his ministry ahead of the high-stake polls on May 14.
In a two-page written answer seen by Al-Monitor, the board claimed for itself the constitutional duty to monitor election results and deal with any claims of irregularities. The Security and Emergency Coordination Center of the Presidency, where Soylu wants to upload the results, "has no electoral role,” the statement said.
