Oy ve Ötesi (Vote and Beyond), a civil society initiative that has mobilized thousands of people to monitor the reliability and transparency of the vote counting process in an effort to prevent election fraud ahead of the snap election on Nov. 1, has brushed off accusations by the pro-government media that it has teamed up with anti-government groups to itself commit election fraud.
Oy ve Ötesi's election monitoring efforts are widely believed to have succeeded during the June 7 general election, but now the civil society platform is itself being defamed by pro-government media outlets, such as the Sabah and Star dailies, for seeking to do the reverse of what it is aiming to prevent, alongside accusations of having links to "terrorism” for cooperating with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C).
The civil society initiative, which had the motto Oyunu seven saysın (Count your vote if you care) before the June election, is thought to have prevented massive election fraud from occurring with many volunteers closely monitoring the vote counting process.
Opposition parties such as the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) were alarmed to read allegations that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) will manipulate the election in this Sunday's election.
The AK Party, which was unseated in the June election, is seeking to regain the parliamentary majority on Sunday's election to once again lead the country single-handedly. Should that happen, it would remove the possibility of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other senior AK Party figures being called to account for the massive corruption scandal that went public on Dec. 17, 2013.
That is the focus of the massive election fraud claims and is thought to be the reason for the pro-government media now targeting Oy ve Ötesi with accusations that the initiative is acting illegally. Despite the allegations, it is known that the initiative has never targeted a specific political party during its campaign to train volunteers to monitor the voting and vote counting process, but rather called on all voters to pay attention to the whole election process.
The group was also known to be instrumental in detecting fraud in some places during Turkey's election in June.
In a report published by mynet.com haber, Oy ve Ötesi spokesperson Sercan Çelebi said on Sunday that there were calls from the pro-government media for the initiative's leading figures to "be imprisoned," for "having links to several terrorist groups." He added: "These reports deliberately target the initiative but we are prepared for such defamation campaigns. Our aim is not to trade barbs with anyone. Our goal is to save our voting system by using our right stemming from the law. While using this right, we will not focus on such incorrect accusations leveled against the civic initiative. Transparency is a value to which we attribute importance just like impartiality."
Çelebi said the total number of those volunteers set to monitor the election has so far reached 48,500. "It [the number] proves that the people have gone into the issue wholeheartedly. It seems that Oy ve Ötesi will repeat its success story of June 7 in the Nov. 1 election."
Fuente: http://www.todayszaman.com/national_pro-govt-media-accuses-oy-ve-otesi-o...
