Ruling AKP wins in Turkish capital amid opposition claims of blemishes

With all votes counted, Gokcek won in Ankara with 38.47 percent, while Republican People's Party, or CHP, candidate Murat Karayalcin took the second place with 31.50 percent and Nationalist Movement Party's, or MHP's, Mansur Yavas came in third with 26.9 percent of the vote. �

The YSK computer system broke down in many cities and data flow was disrupted, both the main opposition CHP, and MHP claimed late on Sunday.

“According to the data we have, 50 percent of the votes have been counted and we are on a par with Melih Gokcek of the ruling AKP,” MHP’s Yavas told a press conference.�

“Gokcek appears to be leading the polls with 34 or 36 percent of the vote but this result is not reflected in television broadcasts,” he said. “The ballot boxes are not secure, while power cuts are still continuing in some parts of Ankara. The computer systems have collapsed.”  

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Ballot boxes stolen

Yavas claimed one man was caught in act of attempting to steal a ballot box in Ankara’s Yenimahalle district. 

“I don’t understand why, but municipality buses are waiting in front of some election boards. I’d like to ask why these buses belonging to the municipality are there. Another tip-off came from Ankara’s Golbasi and Dikmen districts… A shadow is hanging over the elections. I’m inviting all the members of the police department to take action. I ask the municipality buses remove the areas close to the election boards,” said Yavas. 

CHP’s Secretary-General Onder Sav said the AKP was losing the strong fortresses it gained in the previous elections. 

“A sense of unease is being observed among the AKP rank and file as they lose their strongholds to other parties,” said Sav. “We want fair and honest elections,” he stressed.

CHP’s strong candidate for Istanbul Kemal Kilicdaroglu said: “There appeared to be a breakdown in the computer systems in some provinces, while power cuts have happened in some districts. We have some concerns about this situation.”

Stressing that each political party should help the YSK, Kilicdaroglu added: “We should respect the election results, but these results should not be manipulated. We have concerns over this issue, also in terms of Istanbul.” He also emphasized the importance of healthy results and said they want the elections to be conducted honestly.

The CHP’s Hakki Suha Okay repeated their uneasiness over the power cuts in the Cankaya district.

The CHP’s mayoral candidate Karayalcin, said the YSK did not enter the data of election results in Ankara’s Yenimahalle and Cankaya districts.

“We will end the election race with a lead of two points. Because of the problem in the database, the election results in districts like Cankaya and Yenimahalle have not been revealed,” Karayalcin said. 

He urged the Turkish people to protect their votes and said they would appeal to the Energy Ministry for an explanation for the power cuts.

Meanwhile, the YSK announced that there is not a problem “in general” and that the system was temporarily closed. “We will restart again in 10 minutes.” The flow of data from the Anatolian News Agency regarding the local elections stopped as of 19:15 on Sunday. 

Gokcek calls claims ‘agitation’ 

Ankara’s current mayor and the winner of the night Gokcek rejected the claims and said they were “agitation” from the opposition.

“I spoke with authorities from the Turkish Electricity Distribution (TEDAS) who said there were temporary power cuts in few places,” Gokcek said at a press conference, often interrupted by victory slogans shouted by his party’s fans. 

He said his party was ahead of the opposition parties in Ankara, adding the gap was too big to close as vote counting nears its close. “The CHP is trying to create controversy by making false claims.” 

System crashes in other cities

A computer system installed for data collection in the districts of Izmir, Antalya and Eskisehir failed, the state-run Anatolian Agency reported. The system hindered vote counting, the report said.

It is said that while votes brought to offices of the YSK cannot be counted, some votes counted cannot be logged into the computer because of a failure in the computer system. 

Izmir Municipality Election Board Manager Ismet Kilimci said the computer system collapsed because too many computers were connected to the system. He added that they turned off some of computers.

Stolen ballots

In the Dikmen district of Ankara, people posing as policemen removed a number of ballot boxes, according to a claim.

Concerns hit a peak when a municipal police car was seen in front of an Ankara primary school loaded with three bags containing votes. The car belonged to an AKP-led municipality. YSK had appointed only policemen to carry the votes. Police confiscated the car and detained the driver.

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) candidate for Ankara, Mansur Yavas, also confirmed the claims in a press conference, saying such information had also reached him.

In some parts of Ankara large crowds have gathered to protest the vote tampering claims.