Videos have emerged in Turkey of alleged ballot stuffing and polling station violations during the Sunday referendum that approved sweeping powers to the country’s president. Social media users circulated several videos, apparently showing violations on election day, including people voting more than once. In one video, a man who was identified by France 24 as Mehmet Koçlardan, the leader of a village in east Turkey from Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), is seen casting five votes into a ballot box. Another video shows an unidentified person stamping “yes” on five voting slips and piling them on a table.
In a third clip, a man appears to be marking the “yes” side of four ballots and stuffing them into envelopes. Opposition activists also shared a photo of torn “no” ballots.
Election authorities said preliminary results showed 51.4 percent of voters had backed sweeping new powers for Erdogan, something he says is needed to prevent instability.
Turkey’s main opposition began a battle on Tuesday to annul the referendum.
Full Article: Turkish activists post videos of alleged poll fraud in referendum | Middle East Eye.
