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Scuffle during voting in Turkey, 15 wounded

Türkiye Materials 7 June 2015 16:08 (UTC +04:00)
Some 15 people were injured in Turkey’s south-eastern province of Sanliurfa in a scuffle, which occurred during voting among the supporters of the oppositional Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
Scuffle during voting in Turkey, 15 wounded

Baku, Azerbaijan, June 7

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Some 15 people were injured in Turkey's south-eastern province of Sanliurfa in a scuffle, which occurred during voting among the supporters of the oppositional Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Hurriyet newspaper reported June 7.

At the moment, the cause of the fight is unknown. Turkish gendarmerie forces arrived at the scene.

Today, the attempts were revealed in the same province to rig the parliamentary election.

Reportedly, a number of supporters of the Peoples' Democratic Party tried to throw into the ballot boxes the falsified ballots in favor of the party, but they were prevented by voters from other political circles.

The parliamentary election kicked off in Turkey June 7 at 08:00 (UTC/GMT +3 hours).

According to Turkey's Supreme Electoral Council, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People's Party, and leader of the Nationalist Movement Party Devlet Bahceli will vote in Ankara.

The leader of the Peoples' Democratic Party, Selahattin Demirtas will vote in Istanbul.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also cast his vote in Istanbul.

As many as 20 political parties are taking part in the election and 53,765,231 voters will participate in the voting.

The main competition in the parliamentary election is expected to be between the ruling Justice and Development Party and the People's Republican Party.

If the Peoples' Democratic Party manages to get into the parliament, the ruling party will have to form a coalition government. However, all the political parties, except for the Peoples' Democratic Party, are against forming a coalition government with the ruling party.

According to the ruling party's statute, if it wins in the election, over 70 of the current MPs from this party will have the right to join the new government. Moreover, according to this structure's statute, the MPs from this party have no right to be elected to the parliament for more than three terms.

Such well-known political figures as deputies of the prime minister, Bulent Arinc, Besir Atalay and Ali Babacan, former Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag, deputy chairman of the party Huseyin Celik, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu are among those MPs.

During the parliamentary election held in Turkey in 2011, the ruling Justice and Development Party gained 46.66 percent of the vote. Some 20.85 percent of the votes went to the Republican People's Party (CHP), and 14.29 percent of the votes were gathered by the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu

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