Tension Over Declarations Among Voters in Turkey's Bursa Continues

There are queues and tension during the snap elections in voting sections in Turkey.

In Bursa, where there are traditionally a huge number of people wishing to vote, the eelction process was halted for about ten minutes when voters burst into the building.

About 50 people waiting to vote in front of the school were put on a bus and taken to a different voting location where the queue was smaller.

Earlier on Sunday morning, the policeman who tried to maintain order was toppled to the ground by people trying to get inside, reported Nova TV.

People started queueing up in front of voting sections in Bursa early in the morning. Voting takes place very slowly – about 15 people per hour, reported bTV.

It takes time to fill in the declarations stating that the voter is voting with his current address, not his permanent one. According to CEC’s instructions, the declarations are handled manually after the voter signs the declaration in front of members of CEC.

The Chairman of the organisation of Bulgarian outmigrants Bal-Göç Yüksel Özkan called on the people present to remain calm and not give in to provocations.

Özkan expressed his dissatisfaction with CEC’s decision for voting declarations to be filled in in the voting sections in Bulgarian. According to him, this is the reason for the long queues and the serious tension among voters.

“The members of the electoral commissions who arrive from Bulgaria are treating people like bodyguards. I adamantly reject this discriminatory policy. We are shocked by yesterday’s decision for the declarations to be filled in in the rooms where the urns are located. This is unacceptable and worried voters. This caused several arguments and scandals between them and the members of the commissions from Bulgaria.”

Slightly over 100 people had voted in the Consulate in Bursa by noon.

In previous years, over 1,000 people voted on a single election day. Expectations today are for that number not to exceed 500.