Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy co-chair Meral Danış Beştaş has strongly reacted to the AKP’s decision to 'carry the ballot boxes' and defined it as an attempt to leave the HDP under the election threshold and a demonstration that further election frauds will take place in the Kurdish region.

HDP deputy co-chair and Adana deputy Meral Danış Beştaş has issued a statement regarding the recent decision to carry the ballot boxes in some settlements to some other locations. Beştaş said the people will definitively cast their votes and called on the public opinion to raise sensitivity about the issue.

She emphasized that this decision means an intervention on the will of the peoples and a violation of the constitution as it has no legal grounds.

Beştaş said the biggest obstacle for the AKP to come to the power alone is constituted by the HDP, as well as the democrat and fair segments of the society and the peoples of Turkey aware of their rights and interests.

“In addition to undemocratic and repressive policies and administrative measures aiming to break the will of the people, the AKP now attempts to reach its target by carrying the ballot boxes to other areas. Cizre District Election Board got engaged in a scandal and crime by making a decision to relocate the voters in almost all parts of Cizre. This decision demonstrates that new fraud methods will be put into practice on November 1. Cizre was particularly chosen for such a decision which touches the nerves of the Kurdish people and intends to keep them away from the ballot boxes through provocations”, stressed Beştaş.

HDP deputy co-chair said the actual danger that made the system take this decision is not the trenches, but the fact that the people of Cizre will again manifest their will at ballot boxes by up to 90 percent on November 1 as they did on June 7.

Beştaş said the actual threat for the makers of this decision was not the streets of Cizre but the political answer people will give on November 1 in response to the crimes against humanity perpetrated in the town.

Beştaş said the AKP government and Erdoğan do not want another election victory by the HDP which has become the representative of the people and is leading the true social opposition. She added that attempts to burn the documents of candidates' applications for the elections during the attack on the HDP headquarters openly gave this message.

HDP deputy co-chair stated that this decision will likely be put into practice in all the Kurdish cities and districts in an effort to leave the HDP under the election threshold, adding; “The decision that the Election Board in Cizre was forced to take has no legal ground. According to the existing electoral legislation, it is in no way possible to change the location of ballot boxes after the declaration of lists of voters.”

Beştaş stressed that the election would be cancelled in the event of disobedience to the locations declared by Higher Election Board, recalling a previous example in 2002 elections when the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan became a deputy; “In Doğanköy village of Siirt's Pervari district, election boards were not formed, a ballot box was broken and 706 voters registered for 3 ballot boxes boycotted the elections and did not cast votes. The AKP therewith demanded the cancellation of the election on grounds of the situation, which happened indeed, and consequently Erdoğan was elected as a deputy after the elected deputies were dropped out.

Beştaş pointed out that AKP's own practice proved the unlawfulness of the decision taken in 2015, and that a so-called democratic system cannot make the people pay the price for its own failure to ensure the election security.

Calling out to AKP and Erdoğan, Beştaş said the people of Cizre will never back down from using their democratic right to vote and cast their votes even the ballot boxes are set up in the garden of his Palace.

“AKP must recover itself and know that there exist limits to enmity and unlawfulness”, said HDP deputy co-chair and called on the democratic social opposition forces, the peoples of Turkey and international institutions to be sensitive towards the attacks of the AKP.