For many voters in southern Turkey, participating in and casting ballots in the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for Sunday will be an uphill battle.
The elections are being held just 3 months after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake—the most violent earthquake in terms of the death toll in the country’s modern history—smashed the region, killing more than 50,000 people and displacing millions who now live in evacuation centers. Temporary – including tents.
According to officials, of the 3 million people who left the quake-hit area, only 133,000 registered to participate in the ballot from their new places of residence.
Political parties and NGOs plan to bus voters back to their hometowns so they can cast their ballots, which will not be an easy task.
How are we going to transport 100,000 or 150,000 to this city in one day? How are these people going to be transported through narrow unpaved roads? Where are they going to eat, drink and stay with? They coming here? (Talk to you) Honestly, all these issues scare us now.”
Barlakıldız added that the remaining residents of Antakya will cast their votes in schools that have been turned into polling stations in abandoned neighborhoods.
Aydin Mersin, 53, says that his tent is 5 minutes away from a polling station, but he has to cast his vote in a school in Antioch, an hour away on foot, and added, “(But) we will participate in the vote with pleasure, God willing, and hope for the best, my family All of us, and all our relatives, will vote.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has held the position of prime minister and then president of Turkey since 2003, faces the most difficult electoral effort in his political history, as the opposition relies in its campaign on a number of domestic issues such as rampant inflation and Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian leadership, in addition to civil rights.
His government is also accused of causing the massive earthquake casualties and catastrophic damage caused by its lax implementation of building standards.
Many in the quake-hit areas said the response to the disaster was too slow.
Erdogan has focused his re-election campaign on rebuilding the quake zone. He has pledged to build 319,000 homes during the year and has sought to convince voters that only he can lead the country to a successful recovery.
Ali Akdeniz, 47, an earthquake survivor, said: “When I vote, I will first listen to my (voice) conscience… I will first think about how they forgot us during the earthquake, how we froze (from the cold), and how we had nothing to eat or drink.”
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2023-05-12 08:12:47
