Hurriyet - A last-minute decision by Turkey’s electoral board to allow unstamped ballots in
the April 16 constitutional referendum was "clearly against the law,” preventing
proper records being kept and potentially impacting the result, the Union of
Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) has stated.
"With this illegal decision,
ballot box councils [officials at polling stations] were misled into believing
that the use of unstamped ballots was appropriate,” the TBB said in a statement
released late on April 17, adding that the announcement of the Supreme Election
Board (YSK) "is clearly against the law.”
"The YSK announcement … led to
irregularities and the prevention of records that could uncover irregularities,”
it stated.
The YSK decision to accept unstamped ballot papers "unless it
can be proved that they were brought from outside the voting room” sparked a
major debate on the results of the referendum, in which the "Yes” campaign
emerged as the winner with some 51.4 percent of the votes.
Referring to
the 79th article of the constitution, the TBB said it expected the YSK to now
realize its constitutional responsibilities in evaluating
complaints.
"Otherwise it will be impossible to say the referendum was
being held under judicial guarantee, that it was fair, that the results were
viable, and that a state order was in place where the law is superior. We are
not sad about the results of the referendum, but rather the willingness to
ignore the clear contradictions that could impact the result and are unlawful,”
it added.
Saying the bar association formed a center for ballot box
security as part of their duty to protect the superiority of the law, the TBB
noted that it had answered citizens’ question throughout the day, while mostly
receiving complaints on unstamped ballot papers.
"A majority of the
calls all over Turkey were about unstamped ballot papers. The legal advice of
our lawyers was to record them after the ballot boxes were opened, because the
law says that unstamped ballot papers are invalid. While the voting was ongoing,
the YSK announced its decision. In fact, two hours earlier the YSK cited the
reason for stamping ballot papers as the prevention of fake ballot papers from
being used. As a result of the YSK decision, it was impossible to prove whether
ballot papers were brought from the outside, because the only proof is the lack
of a stamp,” the TBB also stated.