Following the removal of Eyüpsultan Mayor Mithat Bülent Özmen from office as part of a 'corruption' investigation conducted by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, CHP candidate Cafer Parlak was elected in the subsequent deputy mayoral election.
Following the election, AKP İstanbul Provincial Chair Abdullah Özdemir made a statement at the AK Party Eyüpsultan District Headquarters.
"We will quickly initiate our legal battle"
Stating that they do not accept the election results, Özdemir said, "As a result of the removal of Eyüpsultan Mayor Mithat Bülent Özmen from office over accusations of 'rigging a tender' and 'bribery,' 19 votes were cast for our AK Party and People's Alliance candidate Muhammet Çakır in the third round of the deputy mayoral election, with the support of 14 People's Alliance council members and 5 Republican People's Party council members.
18 votes were cast for the Republican People's Party candidate, Mr. Cafer Parlak. One vote for our AK Party, which should have been valid, was again declared invalid, just as in other elections. Our vote count was recorded as 18. Just as in the Adana Yüreğir deputy mayoral election, the same number of 19 had emerged for our AK Party candidate in Istanbul as well.
Following the objections made there, the Adana 2nd Administrative Court ruled that the 19 votes in the third round were valid and sufficient, and the AK Party candidate was elected as deputy mayor there. We will continue our legal battle here as well. We believe we will achieve the same result here. We assert that our AK Party and People's Alliance candidate, Mr. Muhammet Çakır, has won the election here. May it be auspicious for our Eyüpsultan and our Istanbul. We will quickly initiate our legal battle," he said.
"Decisions should be made without the slightest suspicion or incorrect ruling, using ballots, seals, and methods just like in normal elections"
Özdemir said, "In Istanbul and various parts of the country, mayors are sometimes removed from office due to unlawful situations, and deputy mayors are elected in their place. We also know that similar decisions are made and elections are held after sad events such as deaths. However, we saw it today, and we have seen it in previous elections.
Unfortunately, I must express with regret that decisions containing comedy, such as likening the letter 'G' to the number '6' or the letter 'Z' to the number '2,' have been made. When electing a deputy mayor in Municipal Council elections, the municipal council there acts as a political party as a result of the dominance of one side.
These decisions were unfortunately made by individuals lacking a sense of justice, in line with the interests of their own political parties. We see that deputy mayoral elections, which will determine the fate of a district and ensure the administration of a district, should no longer be conducted with this method, and that our country and our municipal elections are being tarnished by such biased management. Our proposal is that decisions should be made without the slightest suspicion or incorrect ruling, using ballots, seals, and methods just like in normal elections," he said.
"We will fight to ensure equal service in our Eyüpsultan with our AKP and Nationalist Movement Party organizations"
Emphasizing that they will initiate a legal battle regarding the election results, Özdemir said, "We all see the necessity for the council committees that determine these election results in districts where nearly a million of our citizens live to be impartial, managed by the relevant state bodies, just like an election board.
With such an arrangement, we must remove this from the agenda of all our citizens, both partisan and non-partisan.
If the court makes a decision in the way we requested through our necessary legal battle following the results obtained today, we will fight to ensure equal service in our Eyüpsultan with our AK Party and Nationalist Movement Party organizations," he stated.
News Source: 12punto
