Snap election in Turkey impossible amid security crisis: HDP leader
The leader of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has said that it was “impossible” to run snap polls in November due to the volatile and unsuitable conditions in Turkey’s southeastern regions.
“Our friends coming from these regions do not give good news. They say conducting an election campaign under these conditions is impossible. This is the objective of the [Justice and Development Party] AKP. If they would, they could provide the necessary conditions for polls even in one day,” Selahattin Demirtas was quoted as saying by the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News on Wednesday.
Demirtas further said that the elections could not be organized if violence went on ceaselessly; however, reminded that boycotting elections was not on his party’s agenda. "If violence continues, the elections cannot be organized. It is impossible to hold the polls under these circumstances.”
For the first time since coming to power in 2002, the AKP fell short of securing sufficient votes during the legislative elections in June 7 to form a single-party government.
Following the failure of coalition talks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan approved the formation of an interim government on August 28. The power-sharing government formed by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu includes the first ever representatives from the HDP and will run the country until snap elections scheduled for November 1.
Demirtas said HDP would compete in the election with all of its political mechanisms, adding the party’s objective was to secure 20 percent of the votes on November 1, nearly seven more points than it had in June.
During the past five weeks, escalating clashes with militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the southeastern parts of the country has claimed the lives of over 60 members of the Turkish security forces.
Turkey has been launching airstrikes against purported Daesh targets in Syria as well as PKK positions in Iraq after a Daesh bomb attack left 32 people dead in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc on July 20.
The shaky ceasefire that had stood since 2013 was declared null by the PKK following the Turkish military campaign against the group, narrowing chances of the two sides to reach a deal in the near future.
The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.
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