Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday said there were irregularities in the İstanbul elections that he called an “organized scheme,” Turkish media reported.
“We have detected an organized scheme. We have even video recordings of it. There are between 320,000 and 330,000 invalid votes. It’s suspicious if you don’t want a full recount of them,” Erdoğan told reporters on his way to Russia.
Erdogan cited previous elections in Turkey and United States and claimed they were held again since the margin was too narrow. “People aren’t happy with tight margins,” he said.
“Nobody has a right to claim victory by 13,000 to 14,000 votes in a city of more than 10 million voters,” Erdoğan added.
On Sunday his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) applied to the Supreme Election Board (YSK) for a recount of invalid votes in 38 out of 39 districts of İstanbul.
Erdoğan said prosecutors would be investigating the “organized scheme.”
Meanwhile, the opposition alliance announced on Monday that almost 90 percent of the invalid votes in disputed districts had been recounted and that İstanbul’s mayor-elect Ekrem İmamoğlu was still ahead by 15,000 votes. (SCF with turkishminute.com)
