Featured image: “The ruling classes are backed by a huge press army, advertising posters and an election campaign that lasts several months. What happens next is the continuation of the exploitation system. The people have never had the right to free choice in elections. People who are brought before the public with the mentality of ‘vote for us or for us’ are imprisoned in a compulsory thought. It is necessary for the people to understand the facts and unite the oppressed masses for their own benefit.” Source: Yeni Demokrasi
The local elections in Turkey are held today. Since the opening of the polls, grave violations of the bourgeois ideals of ”free” elections have been reported – electoral observes have been forced away from the booths, people vote with ballots they have brought with them and in large groups, and in Kurdish provinces soldiers and police have been brought to the booths in uniform and carrying weapons, which is a violation of the electoral laws.
Some days before the election Yeni Demokrasi wrote that the electoral path is “a path that serves the ruling classes, far from the interests of the people” and that this path has been seen multiple times in the past. They note that huge budgets have been allocated to the electoral propaganda, in the midst of a deep crisis. “Elections are much more visible, especially on the streets. We see the candidates of the parties on almost every corner, street, bridge and billboard. …The public’s expectation of ‘changes through elections’ has weakened considerably from yesterday to today 1 ”, they write.
We have earlier published an unofficial translation of the position of Partizan in the local elections in Dersim.
1 All quotes are our unofficial translations.