Towards the election

The election calendar to be implemented for the general local administration elections to be held on Sunday, March 31, 2024, has begun. According to this calendar, the start date of the election was set as January 1, 2024, and the end date as March 31, 2024. 

As is known, the most important element of elections is the voter. Therefore, creating a reliable voter registry is a prerequisite for the proper exercise of the right to vote, which is a fundamental political right. 

The first important stage of the election is the creation of voter lists by transferring data obtained from MERNİS to SEÇSİS. 

Privates, corporals, and lance corporals under arms (those on leave for any reason are also subject to this provision), military students, those serving as convicts in penal institutions, those under legal disability, and those banned from public service cannot be registered in the voter registry. 

After the finalization of the voter registries, the General Directorate of Voter Registry must:

a) Obtain information regarding deceased voters and those removed from Turkish citizenship from the General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs, 

b) Obtain information regarding voters whose decisions of legal disability have become final, as well as those serving as convicts in penal institutions for crimes other than negligent offenses, from the Ministry of Justice, 

c) Obtain information regarding those under arms from the Ministry of National Defense General Directorate of Conscription and annotate the ballot box voter lists accordingly. 

I remember that during my time as deputy chairman of the Supreme Election Council, the greatest difficulty we faced was creating a reliable voter registry. 

Since the task of managing and regulating population records is under the administration's management and supervision, if voter registration were based solely on population records, the regulation of the voter registry would be left entirely in the hands of the administration. 

For this reason, population records must be continuously updated by the Supreme Election Council, and voter registration must be created by obtaining other data in addition to population records. 

It is a known fact in our recent history that in the elections held after the 1999 earthquake, votes were cast on behalf of those who had died because their deaths were not reported to the General Directorate of Voter Registry and were not processed in the voter registries. 

Following the earthquake that occurred in our country on February 6, 2023, it is of great importance that those who died or migrated elsewhere in the provinces affected by the earthquake are processed in the voter registry. 

Again, it is a known fact that votes are cast on behalf of those who are in the military, as well as convicts and those under legal disability, especially in rural areas. 

Furthermore, there is the issue of migration and its reflection on the election today. Unfortunately, the number of people who have been granted Turkish citizenship and will therefore vote in the election is not being presented to the public in a transparent manner. 

Another problem regarding the creation of the voter registry is changes in residence. There are many voters who change their residence for the purpose of getting the candidate of the party they support or their relatives who are candidates elected in local administration elections. 

Voter lists should be meticulously examined by both political parties and citizens, and objections to mistakes and irregularities should be filed with the district, provincial, and Supreme Election Council within the periods specified in the election calendar. 

The abandonment of the practice of using election ink, which would deter multiple voting—defined as the same voter casting more than one vote in the same type of election held on the same date in the same or different places—and those attempting to vote on behalf of those who cannot vote, has unfortunately left elections open to this danger. 

Since an honest and fraud-free election relies primarily on an accurate voter registry, or in other words, sound voter registration, we will all see together how the Supreme Election Council, which has been entrusted with this task, will perform in the general local administration elections to be held on Sunday, March 31, 2024.