Turkish police fire water cannon as thousands protest local election results in capital Ankara.
Riot police in Turkey have used water cannon to disperse the thousands-strong crowd of protesters surrounding the Supreme Electoral Council in Ankara. The people demanded a recount of local election results, in which the ruling AKP party narrowly won.
Days after Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) claimed victory in a very close race in the capital of Ankara, thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets to protest the alleged fraud of the polls.
The crowd joined volunteers who earlier took to the Supreme Election Board (YSK) to claim their ballots. The volunteer teams, who collected copies of ballot box recordings, have alleged noteworthy differences between the figures provided in records of the ballot boxes and the figures recorded by the YSK, according to Hurriyet Daily News.
“Ankara, claim your votes,” “Rightists and leftists are brothers, Melih Gokcek is a tyrant,” the protesters chanted in front of the election board building. Gokcek is an AKP candidate.
The opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which lost with a slight 0.91 percent difference in votes in Ankara and gathered a total of 43.76 percent, contested the official results and filed for a recount of several ballot boxes on Tuesday.
More Follows…
[adrotate banner=”33″]