Turkish local elections

As they enter the home stretch of the June 7 parliamentary election following a hectic campaigning period, leaders of Turkey?s political parties prepare to hold their last rallies before the election.

The number of provinces where Prime Minister and leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Ahmet Davuto?lu held election rallies is, by far, the highest one.

In just a week, Turkey will have its general elections. Most Turks know the details of this ambitious race, but some outsiders seem a bit confused. So, I decided to give you a brief 101 today.

The Justice and Development Party?s (AKP) nearly 13 years in government will be put to the test once more through the ballot box next month.

Of course, all the votes that will be cast for the AKP cannot be counted as ?full satisfaction? with the ruling party?s performance. Some vote for it simply because they are not convinced that alterative parties will do any better.

Will the June 7 elections be the first electoral defeat of the tall, bald and bold man yelling at everyone?

Ballot boxes irregularities in Turkey affect the election results by around 10 to 15 percent, the main opposition Republican People?s Party (CHP) recently claimed to a delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Turkey?s High Election Board (YSK) is under the influence of President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and, like him, is not impartial ahead of the June 7 general election, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has said, after the YSK rejected claims that Erdo?an was breaching the president?s constitutional impartiality.

Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirta? has accused Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek of having private camera recordings of his party friends, which have allowed him to stay mayor for a long period of time. 

Gökçek, from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said on April 26 he will file a lawsuit against Demirta? and called on him to prove his claims. 

The missing section on the government-led Kurdish peace process, suggesting an expansion of freedoms and rights and continued efforts for the resolution of the process after the elections, has finally been added back into the election manifesto of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).   

The provisional candidate lists for Turkey's upcoming June 7 parliamentary elections were announced on April 15, finalizing the review process of the candidacy lists submitted by the country's political parties to the Supreme Election Board (YSK).

Is there anything abnormal in the head of the Supreme Election Board (YSK) telling newspeople that all cats had been collected and none were left on the streets? If in the last mayoral elections the energy minister was cute enough to attribute a blackout at election stations ? particularly in Ankara ? to cats entering transformers, why not?