The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) filed two complaints on Monday challenging the result of the election for a new deputy mayor of Istanbul’s Üsküdar district, as well as the election process itself.
The district, a former AK Party stronghold, was lost to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in the 2024 local elections. Mayor Sinem Dedetaş was arrested in July on corruption charges, triggering an election to choose an acting mayor. CHP candidate Sibel Tan Çetinkaya won the election, receiving 22 votes from municipal assembly members in the fourth round on Aug. 5. The AK Party, however, alleged irregularities in the voting process.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse where they filed their complaints, AK Party Üsküdar District Chair Taha Sarıcaoğlu said they would also file a lawsuit at the administrative court seeking the annulment of the election and the municipal assembly’s decision, as well as a rerun of the election.
Sarıcaoğlu said the election should be regarded not only as a reflection of the political groups represented in the assembly but also of the will of the people of Üsküdar as expressed at the ballot box.
He said protecting the will of assembly members was a fundamental requirement of democracy, but alleged that incidents during the election process had cast a shadow over the free expression of that will. He said practices that raised questions about election security and the principle of a secret ballot had taken place in full public view.
He said six CHP assembly members voted in favor of Dündar Ziya Gültekin, the candidate of the People's Alliance, comprising the AK Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), in the third round, after which the election was interrupted in a manner contrary to the normal course of proceedings. He said their requests for the election to continue without an adjournment or interruption were not heeded.
Speaking about what happened during the break, Sarıcaoğlu said: “It was alleged that CHP assembly members were threatened in their group room by the provincial chairman of a party whose name is ‘New’ but whose practices and conduct are old, and that they were pressured to change their preferences in the final round.”
He was referring to Özgür Çelik of the New Party (YP), which was established last month by former CHP Chair Özgür Özel. Çelik, who was previously the CHP’s Istanbul provincial chairperson, joined the YP after leaving the CHP.
“Indeed, the picture changed after the break, and it became necessary to assess the change that occurred between the third and fourth rounds together with the allegations of threats, blackmail and pressure during the break,” Sarıcaoğlu said.
He also addressed disputes over the validity of some ballots in the fourth round, saying votes were deemed invalid based on different interpretations of letters and markings appearing on the ballots.
Saying that what happened in this round further deepened the controversy surrounding the election process, Sarıcaoğlu displayed the ballots in his possession and said: “The letter G on this ballot was interpreted as a 6,” referring to the initial of his candidate’s surname. “Another absurdity in legal terms, although it may sound somewhat comical, was that the letter Z was interpreted as a T and a 2. Another arbitrary action was to deem invalid a vote cast for our candidate, Dündar Ziya Gültekin, because of a line drawn to make the letter K more prominent.”
Sarıcaoğlu said Assembly Chair Ali Aral had said during the counting of the votes: “The votes got mixed up. I mixed up the votes. Which one was invalid?” He said the confusion over which ballots the votes and objections related to raised serious questions about the reliability of the election.
Sarıcaoğlu said the validity of votes should be assessed solely within the framework of the relevant regulations, noting that the ballots were not pre-printed and that assembly members had written the candidates’ names and surnames by hand.
“If it is clear from the name written which candidate was chosen, that vote is valid. The appearance of a letter, its curvature, rewriting it or its resemblance to a number cannot make that vote invalid,” Sarıcaoğlu said.
Sarıcaoğlu said the result of the fourth round was announced twice during the session, each time differently, and that a correction was subsequently announced. He claimed that the vote distribution in the corrected announcement also did not correspond with the situation recorded during the counting of the ballots.
Sarıcaoğlu said these incidents could also be seen in footage recorded inside the Üsküdar Municipality assembly chamber.
