Tension rises in Istanbul ahead of local elections due on Sunday

With elections only a day away, tensions ran high in Istanbul’s central entertainment and shopping district when opposition candidates got word that four unidentified men claiming to be from the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, controlled Beyoglu District municipality had begun working at Beyoglu District Governorate processing sensitive citizenship information.

Early Friday evening, the opposition party got wind of four unidentified men allegedly posing as municipality workers at the Beyoglu District Governorate, which houses sensitive citizenship information.

In this election cycle, citizenship numbers can be used as identification for voting. People’s Republican Party, or CHP, officials began inquiring about the nature of the activities of the four unidentified men at the Governorate.

Opposition leaders received a tip that the men had been working at the office for five days despite not having official paperwork assigning them to that office. When opposition party members visited the office to inquire, the unidentified men fled.

Opposition leaders claim that the men had access to as many as 18,000 citizenship numbers over the five days they were working at the office. The four men sat at computers helping citizens with voter registration, according to CHP officials. People connected to opposition parties claim that the men were in fact subcontractors for the AKP.

“This is just another way that the AKP is playing with the people,” said the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, Beyoglu Mayoral Candidate Yusuf Çetin. “This is a last minute attempt to disrupt the process,” he said.

“There is only a day and a half to go before elections. I do not know how this issue can be resolved in time,’ said Democratic Left Party, or DSP, Mayoral Candidate Banu Dalaman.

CHP officials were more optimistic. “We think that the office of the attorney general will look into this matter and resolve it in a timely way,” said CHP Beyoglu Mayoral Candidate Mustafa Dolu. However, he expressed concern: “The vote is the inalienable honor of the citizen.”

At around 6 PM on Friday, the office of the attorney general was notified of the situation according to CHP officials and will begin an official inquiry into the matter.

Both the AKP Istanbul Province and AKP Beyoglu District leadership declined to comment on the issue.