Ballots for referendum in Turkey found in AKP’s office in Duisburg of Germany

Referendum in Turkey for a controversial 18 article constitutional amendments package will be voted on April 16th. Meanwhile, citizens of Turkey living abroad have recently begun casting their votes in various countries.

In Germany’s Duisburg, a scandalous incident has been revealed with a social media post of a member of Turkey’s ruling party AKP.

One of AKP’s executive members in Duisburg, Ahmet Duran, had shared a photograph on his Facebook account on 11 March 2017, appearing with a voting ballot and a stamped envelope in his hand. However, Turkey’s Supreme Board of Elections began sending out ballots, envelopes and the official stamps to related sites and offices on March 12th and the shipment of these materials to embassies of Turkey in foreign countries took place between the dates of March 12-18, according to report of Zeynep Gürcanlı from Turkey’s Sözcü newspaper.

While AKP executive Duran responded to the reactions and report by claiming ‘the ballots had been sent to them to use during the training of polling clerks’, Supreme Board of Elections denied the claim by stating ‘there is no such procedure where ballots are sent earlier to be used in training.’

The photograph of Duran, which was taken in AKP’s elections coordination office in Duisburg, had initially been spotted by CHP member Emre Çam, who questioned how AKP members could have in their possession the voting materials in advance and in party office.

Çam said: “We lock the ballots in consulates. There cannot be an explanation for ballots to be found in AKP offices... We are going to complain about this to the Supreme Board of Elections and file a crimianl complaint...”

After CHP members revealed the scandal, Duran deleted his post.

Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/almanya-daki-referandum-oylamasinda-skandal-154047.html