NOVANEWS
A screenshot taken from whistleblower fuatavni’s Twitter account. (Photo: Today’s Zaman)
Turkey’s prominent Twitter whistleblower Fuat Avni has exposed what he claims are the names of polling clerks who will take part in Sunday’s elections and engage in election fraud for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in addition to other plans to rig the elections by the party.
In a series of tweets he posted late on Thursday, the whistleblower claimed that the AK Party and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered this week’s seizure of the İpek Media Group, which is critical of the government, to rig the elections more “easily.”
“I will expose all planned frauds. They are struggling in vain,” Avni tweeted. Stating that the AK Party, which he says is still unable to receive more than 40 percent of national vote, will try to rig the elections to get parliamentary majority in 38 “critical provinces.” Among the provinces he listed were Ankara, Eskişehir, Karabük, Sivas, Kahramanmaraş, Konya, Balıkesir, Ordu, Samsun, Sivas, İstanbul, Van, İzmir, Ağrı, Karaman, Malatya, Düzce, Erzurum, Ardahan, Çankırı and Hatay.
The whistleblower claimed that many “crypto-pro-AK Party” polling clerks were brought to their positions from the quotas of other parties to ease rigging. “They told polling clerks to cast votes on behalf of those who fail to appear at the ballot boxes. The last half hour [of voting] is of crucial importance,” he tweeted.
Avni also claimed that it is also planned that invalid ballot papers cast are to be manipulated by pro-AK Party civil servants at the district election boards to be counted in favor of the AK Party.
According to the whistleblower, some 5,000 thousand pro-AK Party civil servants who will input data at district election boards were specially selected by pro-AK Party judges.
“The most important places where [vote] theft will take place are district election boards. Citizens should follow their votes until election results are entered correctly into the [election] system,” he said.
He then revealed the names of more than 500 people across Turkey who he said will serve as polling clerks in the elections. Fuat Avni’s list, titled “Ak-Hırsızlar” (AK-Thieves), included the names of polling clerks, their title, occupation and where they will work during the election.
Alarmed by rumors of election fraud, Turks have already taken civilian initiatives to prevent rigging in the elections. Oy ve Ötesi (Vote and Beyond) is one of the civil society initiatives which has mobilized thousands of people to monitor the reliability and transparency of the vote counting process in an effort to prevent election fraud ahead of the snap election on Nov. 1.
The civil society initiative, which had the motto Oyunu seven saysın (Count your vote if you care) before the June election, is thought to have prevented massive election fraud from occurring, with many volunteers closely monitoring the vote counting process.
Avni agreed that such initiatives foiled similar election fraud plots ahead of the June 7 elections and called on people to follow the fate of their votes again.
The AK Party, which was unseated in the June election, is seeking to regain the parliamentary majority on Sunday’s election to once again lead the country singlehandedly. Should that happen, it would remove the possibility of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other senior AK Party figures being called to account for the massive corruption scandal that went public on Dec. 17, 2013.
In a series of tweets he posted late on Thursday, the whistleblower claimed that the AK Party and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered this week’s seizure of the İpek Media Group, which is critical of the government, to rig the elections more “easily.”
“I will expose all planned frauds. They are struggling in vain,” Avni tweeted. Stating that the AK Party, which he says is still unable to receive more than 40 percent of national vote, will try to rig the elections to get parliamentary majority in 38 “critical provinces.” Among the provinces he listed were Ankara, Eskişehir, Karabük, Sivas, Kahramanmaraş, Konya, Balıkesir, Ordu, Samsun, Sivas, İstanbul, Van, İzmir, Ağrı, Karaman, Malatya, Düzce, Erzurum, Ardahan, Çankırı and Hatay.
The whistleblower claimed that many “crypto-pro-AK Party” polling clerks were brought to their positions from the quotas of other parties to ease rigging. “They told polling clerks to cast votes on behalf of those who fail to appear at the ballot boxes. The last half hour [of voting] is of crucial importance,” he tweeted.
Avni also claimed that it is also planned that invalid ballot papers cast are to be manipulated by pro-AK Party civil servants at the district election boards to be counted in favor of the AK Party.
According to the whistleblower, some 5,000 thousand pro-AK Party civil servants who will input data at district election boards were specially selected by pro-AK Party judges.
“The most important places where [vote] theft will take place are district election boards. Citizens should follow their votes until election results are entered correctly into the [election] system,” he said.
He then revealed the names of more than 500 people across Turkey who he said will serve as polling clerks in the elections. Fuat Avni’s list, titled “Ak-Hırsızlar” (AK-Thieves), included the names of polling clerks, their title, occupation and where they will work during the election.
Alarmed by rumors of election fraud, Turks have already taken civilian initiatives to prevent rigging in the elections. Oy ve Ötesi (Vote and Beyond) is one of the civil society initiatives which has mobilized thousands of people to monitor the reliability and transparency of the vote counting process in an effort to prevent election fraud ahead of the snap election on Nov. 1.
The civil society initiative, which had the motto Oyunu seven saysın (Count your vote if you care) before the June election, is thought to have prevented massive election fraud from occurring, with many volunteers closely monitoring the vote counting process.
Avni agreed that such initiatives foiled similar election fraud plots ahead of the June 7 elections and called on people to follow the fate of their votes again.
The AK Party, which was unseated in the June election, is seeking to regain the parliamentary majority on Sunday’s election to once again lead the country singlehandedly. Should that happen, it would remove the possibility of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other senior AK Party figures being called to account for the massive corruption scandal that went public on Dec. 17, 2013.
