Bahçeli asks for new voter count
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by Serkan Demirtaş
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 19, 2008 00:00
ANKARA - According to the Supreme Election Board, or YSK, more than 48 million citizens will vote during the March 29 local elections, constituting 6 million more voters than the general elections in 2007. Devlet Bahçeli of the Nationalist Movement Party demands a new electoral list
The confusion over the increase of 6 million registered voters can only be solved by a new voter registration, which is needed to save the legitimacy of upcoming local elections, according to a political leader.
"There is a need for correction ... to prevent a post-election debate. They should be controversy-free elections. There is obviously a problem that has to be fixed before the elections," said Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, in a meeting with media yesterday. "But postponing the elections would not be good. I do not approve of postponing elections."
According to the Supreme Election Board, or YSK, more than 48 million citizens will vote during the March 29 local elections, constituting 6 million more voters than the general elections in 2007. The YSK will examine the increase and other assertions, while the Turkish Board of Statistics, or TUİK, said the confusion stemmed from a new address-based census system.
Bahçeli said the upcoming local elections were important and its results would point to the country’s future ruling party. "These elections will have two major results: they will disclose the next government, and in the case of serious decrease in votes, it will cause the ruling party to set its house in order," Bahçeli said, adding that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his party had been walking on air since the July 22 elections, in which they received 47 percent of votes.
"For Erdoğan, the 47 percent represents the national will, but the remaining people have no meaning. He is trying to zero the will of the rest. His head is in the clouds. Instead of meeting the media the way I do here, he prefers talk to them onboard. It is perhaps more enjoyable for him. But this is something I have never tried," he said.
When asked about the recent polemic between him and Deniz Baykal, the leader of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, over the latter’s initiative to register women who wear a black chador in his party, Bahçeli said he did not need to create an argument, but was curious about the motive of this surprising move.
"No one can say anything to the personal choices of people and we cannot have a say about the clothes of these people who joined the CHP. But if this is a new sort of opening to the black chador, then I, like many others, even from the CHP itself, have to ask what kind of an opening this is," he said.
Bahçeli said there had already been an effort by some forces from the across the ocean, such as the United States, to move Turkey toward moderate Islam. He said Baykal was performing his role in this as the leader of the left and asked his political rival to openly explain this move. He said, "The right wing move has been completed. Is Baykal playing his role in this plan?
"Politics over one’s attire is wrong. We are waiting for Baykal’s explanation as to where he and his party are floating, and what brought the new concept of the ’left in chador,'" he said.
PM sees the reality
Bahçeli also spoke about Erdoğan’s radical change on the Kurdish issue, his approach toward the Democratic Society Party, or DTP, and Erdoğan’s comments that he shared the views of Bahçeli on these sensitive issues, repeating his motto of one state and one nation.
Bahçeli said it is purely a re-awakening by the prime minister as he has begun to see the realities. "We see the prime minister has begun to understood where Turkey was headed, since his visit to Diyarbakır in 2005," he said. He said the problem in southeastern Anatolia is socio-economic and his party will run in each city in the region.
Ashamed of apology to Armenians
When asked about the prominent intellectuals’ initiative to apologize to Armenians over the incidents of 1915, Bahçeli said he had felt ashamed on behalf of Turkish people. "What was pleasant though was to see so many counterstatements that represent the national stance," he said.
On the Iraqi journalist’s protest against U.S. President George W. Bush and the thrown shoes, Bahçeli differed from many other Turkish politicians, saying the protester was right. "[Bush] should pray, some other things could have been thrown as well."
"There is a need for correction ... to prevent a post-election debate. They should be controversy-free elections. There is obviously a problem that has to be fixed before the elections," said Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, in a meeting with media yesterday. "But postponing the elections would not be good. I do not approve of postponing elections."
According to the Supreme Election Board, or YSK, more than 48 million citizens will vote during the March 29 local elections, constituting 6 million more voters than the general elections in 2007. The YSK will examine the increase and other assertions, while the Turkish Board of Statistics, or TUİK, said the confusion stemmed from a new address-based census system.
Bahçeli said the upcoming local elections were important and its results would point to the country’s future ruling party. "These elections will have two major results: they will disclose the next government, and in the case of serious decrease in votes, it will cause the ruling party to set its house in order," Bahçeli said, adding that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his party had been walking on air since the July 22 elections, in which they received 47 percent of votes.
"For Erdoğan, the 47 percent represents the national will, but the remaining people have no meaning. He is trying to zero the will of the rest. His head is in the clouds. Instead of meeting the media the way I do here, he prefers talk to them onboard. It is perhaps more enjoyable for him. But this is something I have never tried," he said.
When asked about the recent polemic between him and Deniz Baykal, the leader of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, over the latter’s initiative to register women who wear a black chador in his party, Bahçeli said he did not need to create an argument, but was curious about the motive of this surprising move.
"No one can say anything to the personal choices of people and we cannot have a say about the clothes of these people who joined the CHP. But if this is a new sort of opening to the black chador, then I, like many others, even from the CHP itself, have to ask what kind of an opening this is," he said.
Bahçeli said there had already been an effort by some forces from the across the ocean, such as the United States, to move Turkey toward moderate Islam. He said Baykal was performing his role in this as the leader of the left and asked his political rival to openly explain this move. He said, "The right wing move has been completed. Is Baykal playing his role in this plan?
"Politics over one’s attire is wrong. We are waiting for Baykal’s explanation as to where he and his party are floating, and what brought the new concept of the ’left in chador,'" he said.
PM sees the reality
Bahçeli also spoke about Erdoğan’s radical change on the Kurdish issue, his approach toward the Democratic Society Party, or DTP, and Erdoğan’s comments that he shared the views of Bahçeli on these sensitive issues, repeating his motto of one state and one nation.
Bahçeli said it is purely a re-awakening by the prime minister as he has begun to see the realities. "We see the prime minister has begun to understood where Turkey was headed, since his visit to Diyarbakır in 2005," he said. He said the problem in southeastern Anatolia is socio-economic and his party will run in each city in the region.
Ashamed of apology to Armenians
When asked about the prominent intellectuals’ initiative to apologize to Armenians over the incidents of 1915, Bahçeli said he had felt ashamed on behalf of Turkish people. "What was pleasant though was to see so many counterstatements that represent the national stance," he said.
On the Iraqi journalist’s protest against U.S. President George W. Bush and the thrown shoes, Bahçeli differed from many other Turkish politicians, saying the protester was right. "[Bush] should pray, some other things could have been thrown as well."