Voting period first shortened, then restored in countries where Kılıçdaroğlu is ahead

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The second roundof the Presidential Elections will be held on May 28. The citizens of the Republic of Turkey residing in other countries will be able to vote in the second round again. However, the voting period which was announced as May 20-14 was changed in some countries. 

It was announced that in some countries such as the US, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and Japan, the voting period for the second round of the election would be 20-21 May. 

Following the objection made by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) the voting period in the above-mentioned five countries was restored back to five days and the voting will be held between May 20-24. 

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the presidential candidate of the Nation Alliance had completed the first round way ahead among the voters in these countries. He received 79.65,% of the votes in Canada, 80.38% in the US, 79.04% in Great Britain, 61.69% in Japan, and 54.82% in Australia. 

Tezcan: "We do not accept the change"

bianet talked to Bülent Tezcan, the Vice President of the Republican People's Party (CHP) who sees the change as a step to try to prevent the voters from casting their votes. 

Tezcan told bianet that they support the measures such as increasing the number of ballot boxes in Belgium and elsewhere in Europe, but that they were against limiting the five-day voting period announced before to two days in some countries. 

He underlined that some people have to travel 300-400 kilometers to the ballot boxes in some of these countries and that the voting takes 3,5-4 hours. Therefore, voters have to spare two days in order to be able to vote. 

"Therefore it is necessary to increase the number of ballot boxes in such places, but to the contrary, they are limiting the voting to two days, and this means that the voters living there should not vote," Tezcan said. 

Tezcan thinks it is another huge problem that this decision to shorten the period was justified by a request the Foreign Ministry made. "The Foreign Ministry is a body of the administration," he says and adds, "But the Constitution says that the elections are carried out under the supervision of the judiciary."

Tezcan had told bianet that the voting period should be May 20-24 in all foreign countries as announced earlier by the Supreme Election Council, which was the case after the objection by CHP was accepted.(VC/PE)