Turkey election authority reinstates excluded pro-Kurdish mayor

The Supreme Election Council (YSK) has accepted the appeal of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) against Van Provincial Electoral Board's decision to "deem Abdullah Zeydan unelected" as the mayor of Van Metropolitan Municipality and to hand over the mandate to the second ranked candidate. 

 

The Van Provincial Election Board had decided by a majority of votes that Abdullah Zeydan (DEM Party) should be "deemed unelected" on the grounds that he was "not qualified to stand for election" and that the second-ranked candidate (AKP) who received the next highest number of votes and was qualified to stand for election should be handed over the mayoralty. 

 

DEM Party had appealed the decision of the Van Provincial Election Board to the YSK. The Board discussed the appeal at its agenda meeting. Accepting the party's appeal, the Board ruled that the mandate be given to Abdullah Zeydan with 7 members voting in favor and 4 voting against. 

 

Mehmet Rustu Tiryaki, DEM Party's representative to the Supreme Election Board (YSK), made a statement in front of the YSK and said, "As you know, the decisions of the Supreme Election Board are final. There is no possibility of any objection. They are not subject to the Constitutional Court's review. Therefore, since there is no other authority to apply to, the mandate will be given to Abdullah Zeydan."