With only days left until the June 7 general elections, Ankara has increased measures in the east and southeast for election day to secure voting by locals. To prevent a possible provocation by the outlawed PKK and its youth branch, the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), which have reportedly threatened locals to vote for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), police forces have been directed to the region.PKK groups in the previous election tried to pressure locals and pushed them to vote for the HDP by force of arms. Since the beginning of the election campaign, the PKK came under the spotlight with attacks, provocations and threats against eastern locals to gain more votes for the HDP, whose votes hover around the 10 percent election threshold. According to deputy candidates from other parties, the PKK does not allow other candidates to hang banners or have talks with locals as the terrorist organization threatened village headmen with destroying the entire village if they failed to vote for the HDP. In many regions in the east, banners saying, "It is forbidden and dangerous to vote for parties other than the HDP," are hung on roads to intimidate locals. Apart from measures against the PKK in the east, the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry will deploy 5,000 village guards in the east and southeast to keep watch over critical power distribution units and power lines. Three different teams from the ministry and the Turkish Electricity Transmission Company (TEİAŞ) are expected to monitor more than 1 million kilometers of power lines on election day, and if a power cut or frequency distortion is found, a team will be directed to the area. Apart from the ministry, the Supreme Election Board (YSK) has established power generators specifically for courthouses as well as work stations by the identified district's election board. Last year during the local elections on March 30 and the presidential election on Aug. 10, there were power cuts in some cities that led to questions regarding the validity of the election results announced by the YSK.Police officers in 81 cities will not be allowed to take leave on election day by order of the Interior Ministry. According to the ministry's decision, no leave except weekly days off will be allowed for police officers until the June 7 elections are officially over. Additional safety measures will be taken in 17 critical provinces located in the southeast and east on election day as well as random road and vehicle checks throughout the country.