Are election results open to outside interference?

Ezgi Başaran wrote in daily Radikal this week that the results coming from ballot boxes were collected at the Supreme Election Board (YSK) with software that does not have a proper certificate.

The issues she pointed out are these:

Seçsis, the database and software through which election results are processed is not certified by the National Software Certification Center (UYSM). For this reason, the election results processed in this software cannot be controlled; they are open to being altered.

 The Seçsis server is at the National Judiciary Informatics System (UYAP). Consequently, the related engineers could be reached by the Ministry of Justice.

The YSK said, “It is a YSK corporate network, the data of which are encrypted and it is totally closed to the Internet except for the access of corporate staff. It is unique software that was prepared as a result of the joint work of Havelsan engineers and the expert staff in our corporation.”

Under the YSK, there is no staff that can process data during the election period. The staff are mostly provided by municipalities and are hired on a daily pay basis.

What Başaran has brought up is about the safeness of the elections concerning a very fundamental issue.

According to Oya Armutçu’s story, the YSK has decided to test this system before the presidential elections to eliminate doubts on the matter.

This is a positive attitude.

As understood from statements, the system does not have a UYSM certificate and this discrepancy should be resolved before the presidential elections.

It is a must that before the elections, this system be controlled whether it is open to outside intervention and a conclusion that should satisfy everybody should be announced.
It will not be a fair election

It was reported that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will hold his second round of rallies abroad in Vienna, Lyon and Paris. He held one before in Cologne.

It is a well-known secret the prime minister will become a candidate in the presidential elections, but it is not official yet.

And now, in his capacity as prime minister, he is using the state’s means for propaganda trips abroad.
We have gotten used to state facilities to be used in elections. The prime minister and Cabinet ministers are carrying our election propaganda until the silence of the election begins under the pretense of holding “opening ceremonies, inspection trips.”

With this presidential election, this situation is now being carried abroad. As the election gets closer, we will see that the PM will hold these trips and rallies inside Turkey as well. Of course, there is no law against this.

The thing to prevent this is the personal conscience of the politician and his political ethics mentality, but that is a thing that is not easily found in our politicians.

Thus, we are able to see under which circumstances the election will be held. Candidates who are not members of the ruling party will not have such means. They will finance their election campaigns with donations from Turkish citizens.

They will hold rallies, rent voice systems, pay for advisors and campaign workers, provide security in rallies, have posters and leaflets printed, have flags made, will rent planes, helicopters, busses and vehicles. They will conduct a campaign of at least 15 million Turkish Liras.

The top limit of a donation from a citizen is the total amount of the highest paid civil servant’s monthly salary. The candidates cannot accept any more than that and cannot use it in their campaigns.

That is the reason the money was stacked in houses, and was not able to be finished even after “zeroing after zeroing.”

This is why they have made people donate hundreds of millions of dollars to flimsy foundations so that election campaigns could be held under the image of activities organized by these foundations.

With this picture in mind, would there be anyone who would believe the upcoming presidential elections will be a fair competition?