DEM Party voters who went to the Provincial Electoral Board to object to transported voters and irregularities in the elections held in the centre of Bitlis on 31 March were prevented by the police.
In the 31 March local elections, the ruling party moved hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the Kurdish cities as pirate voters in order to turn the results in its favour.
In the province of Bitlis, 2,018 votes were invalidated and the AKP won with 8,900 votes while the DEM Party received 8,702 votes. Despite all the fraud, the difference could only be increased to 188 votes.
The DEM Party took action to file an objection to the Provincial Election Board today, but the police blockaded the board building and the party building.
The party members who were set to go to the board building were attacked by the police with pepper gas and water cannons.
Reacting to the police attack, DEM Party MP Hüseyin Olan said, "We had our objection petitions ready, but the police are blocking our way and preventing us unlawfully. We are prevented from using our legal rights. No power can prevent us from seeking our rights and taking back our usurped will."
Hüseyin Olan said, "We have won Bitlis, and this image shows this clearly. We will use all democratic and legal means. Most of the cancelled votes are ours. A non-official was made the head of the ballot box, while security forces and the AKP mayor went to the place where the votes were counted with their weapons. This is against the election law, and we do not accept it."
The tension in the city continued for a while. The police attempted to detain DEM Party Bitlis co-mayor candidate Nezir Karabaş and were forced to abandon their attempt upon the reaction of the people. A plainclothes policeman threatened the party members with the words "Shoot this one too".
Making a statement in front of the party building after the incidents, Karabaş stated that they competed not with AKP but with the state on 31 March. Karabaş said, "We competed with the police, we competed with those who attacked us here today. We struggled with their governor. We competed with those who did not accept the appointments of our MP. We did not compete with the AKP candidate, Nasrullah Tanğlay. You can see it in this document. 600 people were brought from Rize, Trabzon, Yozgat and other places under the name of police school. Tanğlay is not the will of the people of Bitlis. Tanğlay did not receive votes from the people of Bitlis. Tanğlay was buried in every ballot box where the people voted. Tanğlay has lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the people of Bitlis.”
DEM Party members appealed to the Provincial Election Board for a recount of the votes.
