Why is election security important?

Let's examine an absurd situation today.

Let's say that it is election day and people are at the polling stations.

What happens if a large number of voters write the name of someone who is not on the presidential ballot and put their stamp on it?

Can you imagine, the SBE said no, you cannot be a candidate and did not include your name in the list. Whatever the reason, whatever the methods by which he was prevented from running, but people, perhaps in reaction to the YSK's decision, put the name of this banned person on the ballot paper and put their stamp on it saying I want this person as president.

Naturally, these votes will be invalid. 

But rules aside, how invalid are these votes in reality if the people's trust is in this person?

What are the rules on the validity of the election in such a scenario?

The first question that comes to my mind is, is there a rule on the turnout rate? Or what should be the minimum percentage of valid votes?

Where is the limit? 

How many valid votes count as a valid election? 

Of course, another question is about turnout rates. What if people boycott the election because the candidate they want is not on the list?

What should be the minimum voter turnout rate, for example?

I analyzed these values for the elections and referendums held in Turkey so far.

The lowest turnout rate in general elections was in 1969. Out of 14 million 788 thousand 552 voters, only 9 million 516 thousand 35 voters participated in the elections and the turnout rate was 64.34%.

Again, the highest rate in general elections was in 1987 with 93.38%. 24 million 603 thousand 541 out of 26 million 376 thousand 926 voters participated in the elections.

In local elections, the rate dropped to 50.13% in 1977.

The number of voters has increased considerably with population growth. 

While there were 59 million 367 thousand 469 voters in the presidential election held in 2018, the number of voters decreased to 57 million 87 thousand 743 in the local elections held in 2019. Although a year has passed, this decrease in the number of voters has actually attracted my attention. The difference is 2 million 279 thousand 726 voters, and in the local elections held one year later, this number of voters decreased for some reason! What is the reason?

Of course, this information is not about valid votes or turnout rates. It is the difference in the number of voters. I didn't look at the difference in the number of valid votes, I was more interested in the decrease in the number of voters. Or conversely, the surplus of voters in the presidential elections.

Let's look at one more difference in this regard. Let's look at the number of voters in the 2018 general elections, which were held at the same time as the presidential elections. Despite being held at the same time, the number of voters in the general elections is lower than the number of voters in the presidential elections. 

While there were 56 million 322 thousand 622 voters in the general elections, the number of voters in the presidential elections was 59 million 367 thousand 469 as I wrote above. 

The difference is 3 million 44 thousand 847.

I decided to check it from another place, and this difference seemed quite large to me. I guess such a mistake cannot be overlooked.

Because if we compare this difference to the number of voters in the general elections in 2018, it is 5.4%. 

This is a very high rate.

When I looked a little more, I realized that only the number of domestic voters was given in the general elections. When I added the number of voters abroad, the number of voters matched. I was actually relieved. Because if we consider that the election winning rate of our esteemed president in 2018 was 52.59%, you can appreciate that the 5.4% difference in the number of voters is a significant difference that will affect the result. 

Actually, our initial topic was about the participation rates in the elections, but this issue also caught my attention. 

Parties have the chance to compare the old voter lists with the new ones. These issues need to be taken very seriously. If there are mistakes in the lists, they should make their objections on time. 

When we talk about election security, I think this issue also falls under election security. If you don't realize some things in time, then the horse will cross Üsküdar!

By the way, the number of overseas voters is not small at all. Don't you think the opposition should take a hand on this issue? It means that there are more than 5% voters living in the diaspora. I think this voter rate is important enough to affect the outcome of the elections! 

Another issue that caught my attention is the local elections. 

For example, why are there no foreign voters in local elections? I think this is also a problem! Maybe, according to the declaration, or according to the population information, overseas voters should also be able to participate in local elections. Why not, right?

Anyway, let's get back to our topic. 

In the election law, I did not see a limit on the rate of participation in elections. 

As a matter of fact, our country is among the top seven countries in the world in this regard, in other words, our participation rates in elections are quite good among the countries of the world and we are among the first category of countries in terms of participation rates. 

In fact, in the last elections, Turkey ranked second after Belgium among OECD countries.

This is of course something to be proud of. 

In some countries in Europe, the participation rate has fallen considerably. In fact, in about a third of European countries, the turnout rate is around 50%. There are even countries with 40% turnout and below. I understand that some countries have introduced compulsory voting as a precautionary measure.

There is a lot of information in the lists, for example, in addition to the turnout rates, the representation rates in the parliament are also analyzed. 

Of course, our success in terms of participation rates is not that high in terms of representation in parliament due to the 10% threshold in the current electoral law. I think we are the world champion in terms of the height of the threshold.

According to the amended law, the threshold has now been reduced to 7%, but even this rate is quite high compared to other countries.

Of course, the parties have found ways to get around this threshold by using various methods, but I think as a country we should be ashamed of this situation. We make such complicated rules for ourselves, and then we have to break them in ways that are contrary to the nature of things.

Of course, since these issues result in power poisoning when those who take power get used to using the power in their hands, it results in more democratic rules not being set in any way. The result remains the same for all these years as the continuation of politics with the same electoral law without being able to change the old style. The promises made are never fulfilled.

What was the period for the harmonization laws to be made after the constitutional amendment? It was six months or something. How many six months have passed, but the harmonization laws could not be brought to parliament and enacted. Is it because there is not enough majority in the parliament? Don't make me laugh now!

Anyway, let's see what the coming days will show.

At the beginning of the article, I asked what would happen if a presidential candidate that the nation would prefer is somehow not included in the lists due to the influence of the government, and yet the nation makes its preference known by writing that candidate's name on the ballots.

I guess I don't need to write about the possible outcomes of this scenario. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that I don't want to write about the possible outcomes I can think of. 

Let me briefly state my opinion by saying that no one can stand in front of the people's preference. 

We have elections ahead of us, everyone's mind is working on various devils. Most of all, those who hold the power in their hands are after evil. 

I hope they will give up these evil deeds and our country will have safe and sound elections and we will move on.

The opposition has great responsibilities in these elections, as I said, many different issues need to be thoroughly reviewed to ensure election security. 

I don't want to hear once again that the horse has already crossed Üsküdar, so let's not lose the horse this time.

With love and respect from Moscow