DEM Party MP reiterates election safety using Elon Musk’s viral post

A deputy from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party used a name resemblance in Elon Musk’s viral post referring to the Democratic Party of the US as “Dem Party,” to emphasize the party’s priority to prevent ghost voters of the ruling AKP in the upcoming local elections.

Saturday March 30 2024 04:36 pm

Duvar English

The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party’s deputy chair, Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, on March 29 used a viral social media post to emphasize the party’s safety precautions for the upcoming local elections.

Koçyiğit responded to Elon Musk’s post on X that criticized the Democratic Party of the United States' stance on immigration, referring to it as the “Dem Party,” which sounded familiar to Turkish users who have been vigilant due to the approaching local elections.

The post reading “The Dem Party goal is to import voters,” went viral on social media.

Deputy chair Koçyiğit reposted the remark, writing, “No, our goal is to prevent the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) from unlawfully transferring 55.000 ghost voters to the cities we will win in the upcoming local elections.”

No, our goal is to prevent AKP from unlawfully transferring 55,000 ghost voters to the cities we will win in the upcoming local elections.@DEMGenelMerkezi https://t.co/VKdUzxHcj1
— Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit (@glstnkocyigit) March 28, 2024

The party has repeatedly drawn attention to the fraudulent voters in its strongholds in the southeastern and eastern provinces ahead of the March 31 local elections.

It filed 54.282 separate applications to the local election boards for each alleged fraudulent voter, of which only 222 were accepted.

The districts for which the party filed applications were either won or lost to the AKP by very slight margins in the previous local elections.

The election boards justified the rejection of the objections by stating that the individuals moved were "assigned to ensure peaceful and secure elections" and "deployed as reinforcements for exercise and operational activities."

Officials from the DEM Party stated that it was contrary to the logic of local elections for individuals on duty to vote at their location of deployment, highlighting the illegality of the situation.

One such example was the Malazgirt district in eastern Muş province. The AKP won the district municipality by three votes in 2019, and all objections were rejected.

For the upcoming elections, the DEM Party detected that voters from the neighboring villages were transferred to the district and a total of 569 law enforcement officers were registered at addresses where there were no voters six months ago.