Gurbetin Oylari (GO - Turkish Expat Votes) 25th TERM MP ELECTION ASSESMENT REPORT

Transcription

1 Gurbetin Oylari (GO - Turkish Expat Votes) 25th TERM MP ELECTION ASSESMENT REPORT AUGUST

2 CONTENTS GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT GO 2 ENSURING BALLOT BOX SAFETY ABROAD 3 ELECTION OBSERVERS 5 BALLOT BOX OBSERVERSS 5 TRANSFERRING VOTES TO TURKEY 9 COUNTING THE VOTES AT ATO (Ankara Chamber of Commerce)9 VOTING PROCEDURE AT THE CUSTOMS 10 ANALYSIS OF EXPAT VOTES 10 SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION 12 2

3 GURBETİN OYLARI 25. DÖNEM MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMİ ANALİZ RAPORU 1 ABOUT GO Gurbetin Oylari (GO - Turkish Expat Votes) is the only global non- partisan and civil initiative seeking transparency and legality of Turkish elections as well as encouraging the Turkish citizens abroad to vote and exercise their democratic responsibility. GO operated during 2015 MP elections across a vast area covering Europe, US, Asia and Australia to; 1- Develop pre- election voting safety programs 2- Observe voting process during elections 3- Ensure safety of the uncounted ballots during transfer to Turkey 4- Observe expat votes counting in Turkey at ATO 5- Analyze ballot box records post election Our mission is to create a difference for a fair and transparent election by educating the voters, preventing any illegality on site with the help of our observers at the ballot box and sharing our observations, analysis and suggestions for future elections through social media. 3

4 General Information The election process differed from Turkey in respect of the election calendar and execution of counting off- site, which pose risk in light of election safety and compliance with regulation. The election abroad consisted of 3 phases; voting, transfer of the votes to Turkey and counting in Turkey. Hence the election was subject to 202/1 no decree - which governs elections abroad in addition to 298 no law and 135 no decree. The 2015 MP Election was held in Turkey on a single day, 7 th June, while election abroad, between 8-31th May on the date chosen by the voter, in 54 countries, at 3660 ballot boxes in 112 different locations. You can reach the election locations abroad and a list of election dates at The election was also held between 8th May- 7th June at the customs. GURBETİN OYLARI 25. DÖNEM MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMİ ANALİZ RAPORU 2 The expat votes were transferred to Turkey between 31 st May- 7 th June and counted in ATO ( Ankara Chamber of Commerce) on 7 th June. 4

5 The Turkish citizens registered abroad were only able to vote at their registered premises and at a time specified by the relevant consulate. For instance a citizen registered at Frankfurt was not allowed to vote at Berlin or while the voting was held in France for 24 consecutive days, it was held in Holland only for 3 days. The date restriction created an imbalance in execution as France and Holland have close number of voters; at Holland the election was held across a much higher number of ballot boxes where as in France, it was held at a slower pace, across much fewer number of ballot boxes. Our understanding is that the difference in election dates is a result of the requirement to keep the costs at the minimum by avoiding extra rental costs. On the other hand, compared to 2014 Presidential Election, citizens were able to vote without appointment at a day& time of their choice. Expat Voting Security and Safety of Ballot Boxes The Turkish Supreme Electoral Board has established Ballot Safety and Transfer Commission in addition to Ballot Committee to ensure ballot box security during the transfer of the votes to Ankara. The commission consisted of the council general, an officer, and 3 members from the parties with the highest number of votes at the last elections. (AKP, CHP & MHP) The commission was assigned to provide Internet and electricity connections and transfer the stamped ballot bags to the Expat Votes County Electoral Board in Ankara as well as safeguarding the election toolkit. At every election consulate safety rooms with 3 locks were provided to keep election toolkit. These rooms belonged to the ambassador or counsel general s residence of the consulate. During the election one of the keys was safeguarded by the head of the commission and the other two by 2- party reps who were elected by draw. The election toolkit remaining from Presidential Election, 2 nd tour at the embassies was used during the MP Elections - without the 5

6 knowledge of the commission s party members- along with the toolkit sent from Turkey for MP Elections. GURBETİN OYLARI 25. DÖNEM MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMİ ANALİZ RAPORU 3 NOTE: In Switzerland, on May 2015, the 3d day of election, following the absence of a commission member and his key, the door was unlocked with the back- up key at the consulate which gave way to a security crisis. Upon this incident, the Supreme Electoral Board ruled that any party member commission member could arrange to have self- funded additional key to the safety room. The Functioning of the Ballot Box Safety and Transfer Commission: The commission members met couple of days before the election to receive, record and lock up the election toolkit in the safe- room. During the election, they picked up the election toolkit from the safe- room couple of hours prior to start of voting, carried it to the 6

7 voting premises and delivered to the Ballot Committee vs. receipt. The committee members counted, classified, sealed and recorded all the used& remaining envelopes and ballots separately at the end of voting. The sealed bag, which contains empty ballots and envelopes, was delivered to the commission with the remaining toolkit against a second receipt. The commission locked all the toolkit in the 3 locks safe- room at the end of each voting day and recorded this in their registry book. We observed that not every party was able to assign a member to this commission and/ or in some cases particularly where the election period was long, the members were absent either during the voting or transfer of the votes to Turkey. Furthermore, where the Supreme Electoral Board had not arranged special flights to Turkey, the party members could not accompany the ballots in the absence of private funding. The Functioning of Ballot Boards The ballot board consisted of a head and an officer assigned by the Supreme Electoral Board, and 3 members from 3 parties with the highest number of votes at the last election or in case where the board member was less than 3 one of the electorates was included in the board. The major differences with Turkey were; - The voting taking longer than one day - The votes were not counted at the end of the day, instead the ballot boxes were opened and only the envelopes were counted, recorded, placed in a bag, sealed and handed in to the Ballot Safeguarding and Transfer Commission. GURBETİN OYLARI 25. DÖNEM MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMİ ANALİZ RAPORU 4 7

8 We have witnessed that in some countries where the voting lasted close to one month, it was almost impossible to allocate ballot board members throughout the whole process. Election Observers All parties and independent members involved in the election can assign observers. The observers rights have been defined in the related election regulation article 298, subsections 25 and 72. Accordingly, the observers do not take action during the process, however observe any fraud, non- compliance and if necessary issue written or oral warnings. Neither The Supreme Electoral Board is required to approve the observers, nor their name has to be on a list, an observer card from one of the political parties is the sole requirement. GO volunteers also had to associate themselves with a political party to comply with the regulation. Our Observations during Elections Abroad 1) In most cases ballot committee members, have stated that the observers have encouraged the members to adopt a stricter approach towards complying with the regulation and helped deter fraud and noncompliance. 8

9 2) This year ballot committee members and all the staff in general was more knowledgeable in terms of regulation and eager to cooperate with observers compared to 2014 presidential elections. Despite this noncompliance incidents have occurred and have been reported: a) Lack of knowledge that non- compliance is subject to up to 1- year jail penalty b) Ballot committee members do not view the voting cabin from their seats. c) Fatigue and falling behind in the work particularly where the voting participation rate is high and the voting period lasts almost a month. GURBETİN OYLARI 25. DÖNEM MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMİ ANALİZ RAPORU 5 3) The most common incidents are; a) Assisting the elderly and the sick in the voting cabin b) Taking picture of the ballot after voting (quite a few number have shared this in social media) 9

10 c) Operating the ballot committee with 2 members instead of min of 3. d) Initiating the voting process in the middle of prep. Work such as stamping the ballots and the envelopes. e) At some committees observers were not allowed in during the prep stage or they were kept at a distance to observe some of the actions specifically inputting voter info into the PC. 4) At most of the voting premises, journalists were allowed to stay at the ballot box for only permitted amount of time with the excuse that they are slowing the process by blocking the ballot box. Particularly during the counting at ATO when it was noticed that excess envelopes from the bags had been burnt, journalists were dismissed in the midst of the row where police intervened. However according to Supreme Electoral Board s 202/2 no decree, journalists can monitor and document every stage of election unless they obstruct the process. 5) Significant number of system errors were reported in the Supreme Electoral Board s electoral (expat) record registry. Quite a number of voters have been unable to vote due to absence of record in registry or record at another consulate location. Most of the time this is due to the neglect of the voter in applying for residence address register, or assumption that the whole family will be accounted for when one applies or automatic transfer of the register to Turkey following a transaction in Turkey, or not checking the record. On the other hand, it is quite shocking to see around 20 voters residing in Holland but turning up at India s registry records. Some voters have insisted that they confirmed their records before 27 th March via the system and proven this with PC print outs, still the system shows null record for them or somewhere else. Observers 10

11 have only recorded the cases with printed evidence, despite this quite a few number of voters were victimized, left unable to vote due to lack of register record. Therefore, Supreme Electoral Board registry records need to be investigated thoroughly for systematic inaccuracy. GURBETİN OYLARI 25. DÖNEM MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMİ ANALİZ RAPORU 6 6) Despite the fact that 201/2 no decree requires a copy of the envelope count record to be posted around the ballot box visible to everyone, during the 2014 presidential elections the count records were not posted at ATO. GO volunteers have objected to this as they were told that this practice will be repeated at the 2015 MP elections. Following the objections, it was verbally stated that the count records will be posted, however we have been unable to confirm as to where or when or if this happened. 7) Neither the Supreme Electoral Board nor the political parties allocate sufficient funding to safeguard expat votes, hence political party members do not 100% escort the votes. 11

12 The Supreme Electoral Board transfers expat votes from Europe, - where 70% of the voters reside- to Turkey via special flights and party member can board these flights. However charter flights elsewhere either have to be funded by the party or by the party member her/himself. Hence, not everyone in the committee can escort the votes during the transfer to Turkey. 10) The long duration of the election abroad has handicapped ballot security. The longer the election is, the harder it is to ensure the security of the envelopes/ ballots and recruit volunteers. This year the election has lasted for 24 consecutive days including Germany, the observers and the ballot box committee members worked min 8 hrs/day, and the commission members 10 hrs/ day. 8) Political parties have not been able to assign members particularly in cases where the election lasted almost a month, or the party members were not able to attend sometimes owing to the weak organizational level of the party in that country. 9) We observed that the strongest culprit for weak participation rate was the counting Turkey and the low level of trust in the election system. The other factors may be summarized as: a) The elections abroad encompass a vast geography. For instance the Los Angeles Consulate s district covers Alaska to Hawaii and to Colorado, requiring the residents of these cities to travel to LA to vote. LA/ Alaska 5 hrs. trip costs 700 USD/person roughly excluding accommodation. 12

13 b) All election info is processed solely via the Internet without any written document whereas in Turkey voters receive written document. However particularly for the elderly and Internet illiterates, written documents would serve the purpose. 11) While the participation rate abroad ranked lower than in Turkey, the 2015 MP elections rate multiplied the 2014 Presidential Elections by 4. The factors positively contributing towards participation rate were: a) That this was the 2 nd election abroad hence with a relatively more knowledgeable and experienced electorate b) The appointment system was eliminated and the voter was able to vote any day/ time during the election period. c) The major parties transferred their voters to election premises on buses. d) The political parties were relatively better organized e) While the long duration of the elections handicapped ballot security, it increased the participation rate. The 4- day election period last year was extended to as far as 24 days at some premises. 13

14 f) The timing of the election period: This year the election has not coincided with the holiday season, on the contrary it has coincided with public holiday allowing the voter to cast his vote comfortably. g) Higher number of new ballot boxes at a higher number of new districts. h) No longer the case of no- vote protest as was in the case during the Presidential Election. GURBETİN OYLARI 25. DÖNEM MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMİ ANALİZ RAPORU 8 Transfer of the Votes to Turkey At the end of the election abroad the commission received the sealed bags from the ballot committee at the end of each voting day against receipt and accompanied their transfer to Turkey as diplomatic cargo. Supreme electoral board arranged special flights for transfer from Europe, while the other votes were transferred on scheduled flights. For instance the votes from the US were transferred via scheduled flights accompanied by the commission to Istanbul 14

15 Atatürk airport. On arrival at the airport, they were delivered to another reception commission, which consisted of at least one judge, Supreme Electoral Board officers and party members, and all the uncounted votes from abroad were kept in an airport shed. These bags then were transferred via highway to Ankara accompanied by another commission from Istanbul. Counting Expat Votes at Ankara Chamber of Commerce ( ATO) All the expat votes were opened and counted at Ankara Chamber of Commerce on 7 th June from 17:00 onwards ballot committees, worked on 4 different floors to count expat vote bags with 3 seals. The counting was executed by ballot committee head and officer appointed by the Supreme Electoral Board, 3 members reported to the Supreme Electoral Board- from the political parties with the highest votes in the last elections. Observers were initially allowed to join the ballot committees where the number of member fell below 3, however this was blocked later on following public announcements. The ballot committees at ATO opened the ballot bags one by one, counted and recorded the votes, and distributed the records to party members and observers. Each bag at ATO held single day s votes at any ballot box abroad. However as the number of voters and participation rate differed widely by country, the counting period also varied. The committee head delivered the ballot bag, records and record book to the delivery committees at every floor at the end of counting. The delivery committees delivered the records to the Supreme Electoral Board Center at ATO s 2 nd floor. Here the record were organized to binders according to the country and ballot box no, and inputted into the data network. The inputted data was then cross - checked vs. the info in the binders. 15

16 GURBETİN OYLARI 25. DÖNEM MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMİ ANALİZ RAPORU 9 As explained above the 201/2 no decree requires the envelope count record sample to be posted somewhere visible to everyone. However as in the Presidential Election, the Supreme Electoral Board preferred no to practice this requirement. Following our objections, it was stated that the records would be posted; however as of 8 th June morning they were still not posted although the Supreme Electoral Board Center was still working. Voting at the Customs Eligible and registered Turkish citizens, were allowed to vote at 33 custom points between 8 th May and 7 th June ( until 17:00) 24/7 where 3 ballot committees worked on 3 shifts 8 hours each day. GO was not able to observe security at the customs, as it was not 16

17 present there. Expat Votes Analysis Voters abroad corresponded to 5.23% of total votes during the 2015 MP Elections, however due to low participation rate, 1.96% of total votes were abroad. The participation rate increased almost 4 fold to 32.5% at 2015 MP Elections from 8.32% at 2014 Presidential elections according to Supreme Electoral Board website. 931,646 citizens voted out of 2,866,979 eligible voters at 2015 MP Elections abroad, 918,302 votes were accepted. The election statistics were posted at Supreme Electoral Board s website. ( You can access GO s 2015 MP Election Abroad, Analysis Report at this link: content/uploads/2015/08/go- 2015_Analiz.pdf GURBETİN OYLARI 25. DÖNEM MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMİ ANALİZ RAPORU 10 17

18 Graph 5: The number of errors spotted - Amending written records without initials - Written records signed off by the missing ballot committee member - Written records without stamp - Records with inaccurate vote numbers due to dislocation - Number of valid votes differ from the result announced by the Supreme Electoral Board - Number of invalid votes differ from the result announced by the Supreme Electoral Board GURBETİN OYLARI 25. DÖNEM MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMİ ANALİZ RAPORU 11 18

19 Conclusion and Suggestions: 1) The Supreme Electoral Board has to review the electorate registry system and PC entries and correct any issues. The relevant election info and voter registry confirmation needs to be sent to all voters who have declared residence address via post or . 2) 3) For the reasons mentioned above to ensure security of voting process, election period needs to be shortened for expats. 4) The observers need to be better educated with respect to the regulation and encouraged to be more visible in election field, so that they can prevent any rigging or fraud effectively. 5) The press should be allowed to monitor and document the elections, and encouraged to observe the complete process compliance- wise for the sake of election safety. The training delivered to ballot committee members should also be delivered to volunteer reporters. This training would avert any inaccurate or incomplete news story. 6) The election count records should be posted in Turkey and abroad in a place visible to everyone and should be shared with all 19

20 voters in accordance with the regulation. 7) Political parties should allocate funds for transfer flights, and if necessary Supreme Electoral Board should also contribute. 8) As GO our objective is to encourage Turkish citizens living abroad to vote and safeguard ballots as well as monitoring the complete process to ensure a fair, objective and transparent elections. We would like to thank our volunteers and everybody that cooperates with us. GO TEAM The expat electorate should be able to at any election point abroad as in the customs. Voters opinions should be taken into account to count expat votes at election premises. Public discussion should be initiated to ensure a more efficient and transparent procedure where counting at the election premise is possible. GURBETİN OYLARI 25. DÖNEM MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMİ ANALİZ RAPORU 12 20

21 You can reach us at the addresses below: facebook.com/gurbetinoylari twitter.com/gurbetinoylari GURBETİN OYLARI 25. DÖNEM MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMİ ANALİZ RAPORU 13 21