One of us created this poster. It is posted in coffeehouses we play cards. Çetin is supposed to be the candidate for district headman and four of us pose as his team members. I am sure some people will think this is for real. What is for real is that Çetin will become a father. I learnt that today. His wife is 1.5 month pregnant. Congratulations Çetin!
A round up on the elections follows:
Last-Minute Election Board Rules Eliminate Potential Voters
(for full article, click here) Excerpt:
…On Sunday 48,006,650 voters are expected to cast their votes at 177,050 polling places and elect 36,820 people, not including muhtars (neighborhood heads). However, there is fear that election rules recently issued by the YSK [Supreme Election Board] will overshadow the voting, and there is ongoing debate over whether the board has the right to impose such regulations.
Caption: Those with headscarves can’t be poll workers.
Guard: “Hey you with the headscarf. Get out.”
Voter: “Who, me?”
Guard: “No, you can stay for now.”
Turkey goes to vote: Now what?
ANKARA – Constitutional reform is likely to be at the center of the government’s efforts after the local elections this weekend.
After the elections to be held tomorrow by MÜMTAZ’ER TÜRKÖNE
The results of the elections to be held tomorrow are already known unless a big surprise occurs. Almost all public opinion poll analysts, including Tarhan Erdem, converge on the same point.
Turkey’s ruling AKP leads polls ahead of Sunday’s local elections
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is leading with 47.9 percent of the vote going into Sunday’s local elections, according to a poll published in Radikal daily on Thursday.
Check out Fréderike Geerdink’s The secret of the AKP
A fine note.
We will wake up on Monday morning with a stronger AK Party
It is customary to make predictions about the results ahead of every election in Turkey. These predictions may rely on intuition or they may be based on analysis of empirical data from opinion polls.
The final countdown
On Sunday, five political parties — the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Grand Unity Party (BBP), the Felicity Party (SP) and the Democrat Party (DP) — held election rallies in İstanbul, Turkey’s largest province, attracting huge crowds who came to support their parties ahead of the upcoming municipal elections scheduled for March 29.
The importance of these elections
Democracy is not a game, particularly in a country such as ours, where civilian will has for years and years been pushed into the background, used and placed under the authority of a bureaucratic guardianship. In a country like ours, even a single vote is of extreme importance.
Turkey goes to the polls
While others may speculate, Özer Sencar claims to know. Although far too clever and charming to lord it over the rest of us who rely on close encounters with the odd taxi driver to test the nation’s pulse, he has at his disposal MetroPOLL, a public opinion survey company, which allows him a more comprehensive view of how Sunday’s nationwide local elections will turn out.
Turkish election offers hope for Kurds
Peaceful celebrations shows how far the region has come since the early 1990s, when violence between the army and the separatist PKK was at its height
Army of observers for looming elections
ANKARA – In order to avoid electoral fraud, Turkish political parties have assigned millions of observers to watch over the voting boxes for the local elections to be held March 29.
Don’t let the covered women vote, either!
I wonder when we will finally be happy together, amongst ourselves? No doubt the first step toward achieving this will be when we finally stop defining our own happiness by reference to others’ unhappiness.
The CHP’s problem
I watched the political rallies that took place on Sunday in İstanbul on TV. There were no real surprises when it came to either the choice of city squares or the leaders’ speeches.
A nation in search of its opposition
In the final Sunday before the elections, five parties set aside their efforts to focus on İstanbul, with five political rallies taking place in three central spots in the city.
Municipal elections on March 29th in Turkey–useful assessment by the Economist
Economist.com: "ViewsWire"
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