October 03, 2015•Update: October 04, 2015
ANKARA
Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK) has rejected a call from several local electoral bodies to move ballot boxes and combine voting in certain areas ahead of the Nov.1 general election.
Saturday’s decision by the independent body was passed by a majority of votes, according to a YSK statement.
Concerns have been expressed about the security of vote counting in parts of Turkey’s east and southeast, amid ongoing clashes between the Turkish military and the PKK.
The PKK is listed by Turkey, the EU and the U.S. as a terrorist organization.
A fresh general election on Nov. 1 will take place nearly five months after the election on June 7 resulted in no party winning an overall majority.
In an interview with a Turkish newspaper on Monday, People’s Democratic Party spokesman Ayhan Bilgen said his HDP party was considering an election boycott if the YSK accepted requests to combine voting.
In response to Bilgen's statement, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said: "That statement is in fact an expression of their distrust for the polls. If the YSK, which is an independent institution of Turkey, deems this necessary for election security, everybody has to respect this."
