MAINZ, Germany – Many Kurds in Germany voting in Turkey’s general election accused the Turkish government and poll workers of election fraud, citing irregularities that made it difficult or impossible to cast their ballots.
“I went to the polling station with my mother but as soon as we entered the building the security guy, who must have realized we are Kurds, frisked us for more than five minutes,” said Ahmed Imran, a Kurd who went to a polling station in Frankurt.
“Then, they didn’t let us even vote due to some undefined problems with our passports. My mother even checked at the consulate and they told her that there are no problems, but they still didn’t let her vote,” he said.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) party is the main challenger to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s hopes of winning enough seats in parliament to control the house.
Some Kurds in Germany complained they were registered at polling stations hundreds of kilometers away from their places of residence.
“Although I live in Dusseldorf, the polling commission told me to vote in Berlin, which is on the other side of the country,” chafed Dilan Ozbas, complaining that poll officials were stringing her along. “I went to the consulate in early September to change it to Dusseldorf, but as the elections began I still couldn’t vote in Dusseldorf,” Ozbas said.
The 23-year-old Kurd, who has roots in the Kurdish city of Meledi in Turkey, said that despite back-and-forth correspondence with the Turkish consulate, “still nothing changed.”
“I don’t believe that it will be possible to vote at all, due to all those stalling tactics,” she said, explaining that the same thing had happened to her mother and a Kurdish friend.
Reports on ballot rigging and dubious canvas practices by the Turkish government went around in May, as thousands of Kurds and Turks in Germany received text messages from the ruling AKP government, asking them to go to the polling stations.
This month, thousands in Germany, France and the Netherlands received a letter from Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, asking them to vote for the AKP.
Ethem Coban, coordinator at the Kurdish Studies Network (KSN), a global research network concentrating on Kurdish issues, said: “The scandal is not over receiving a letter from the AKP - canvassing is desirable in a democracy. But the question is, how did they receive the personal data of millions of people.”
Coban said that only two Turkish institutions know his home address in Germany: the Turkish Consulate in Frankfurt and the Defense Ministry.
But because women, who are not obliged to do military service in Turkey, also received the letters, Coban concluded that the Turkish consulates must have given out the addresses and personal information to the AKP, without permission from the citizens themselves.
All citizens of Turkey who live abroad were technically eligible to vote until closing time Sunday.
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