Voters in two separate villages boycott elections

ŞANLIURFA/KÜTAHYA – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

Voters in two villages in Turkey’s southeast and west boycotted the Nov. 1 elections in protest at a lack of services to their areas.

The 142 voters in the Ediz neighborhood of the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa’s Siverek all boycotted the parliamentary elections on Nov. 1 on the grounds that authorities had not completed a road to their village.

İzzet Polatoğlu, one of the 142 voters in Ediz, which is located eight kilometers away from the Siverek district center and just 800 meters from the main road connecting Siverek to Şanlıurfa, said that even though they had applied to various authorities throughout the years, their road has still not been completed. 

“As we have not seen any service to our neighborhood, we are not going to the ballot boxes as the residents of the neighborhood,” Polatoğlu. 

Meanwhile, the 1,400 voters of the western province of Kütahya’s Simav district’s Kuşu village once again boycotted the elections in toto after their locality’s status was reduced from town to village. 

The Law on Local Administrations, which was renewed in 2011, stripped Kuşu of its town status, meaning it no longer has its own municipality. The downgrade was conducted because Kuşu’s population fell below 2,000. 

In protest at the decision, residents of Kuşu have been boycotting the elections since the local elections of March 30, 2014. 

Remzi Karakaya, 48, one of the residents of Kuşu, said they would not go to polls this time, adding that they believed their boycott would eventually result in their municipal status being returned.

“We will start voting again if they give us back our municipal status,” said Karakaya.