A large number of names of Turkish Cypriot voters in the EU Parliamentary elections have been left off the European Parliament voter list, Turkish Cypriot daily ‘Afrika’ has said.
‘Afrika’ journalist and independent EU candidate Sener Levent says that he will file an application to the European Parliament (EP) to demand an annulment of the elections being held on Saturday 24th May.
Levent described the situation as a “usurpation” of the rights of Turkish Cypriot citizens of the Cyprus Republic.
He said that the Turkish Cypriot voter list as displayed on the internet was a “disgrace”. Levent said that many Turkish Cypriots had telephoned ‘Afrika’ complaining that they were unable to find their names on the list. He added that his son could not see his name on the voter list.
Turkish Cypriots such as the general secretary and the president of the teachers’ trade union (KTOS), Sener Elcil and Guven Varoglu respectively, academician Umit Inatci, ‘Afrika’ columnist Faize Ozdemirciler and the chairman of the municipal worker’s union, Savas Bozat were unable find their names on the list.
In his daily column entitled, “These elections must be annulled“, Levent reports that 58,637 names are included in this list and that Demetris Demetriou, officer at the general Election Board had told him that: “The list contains the names of those who stated their address in the North when they applied for a Republic of Cyprus identity card. Those who did not state a residential address were left out of the list.”
But Levent claimed his son’s residential address has remained unchanged since his birth, in north Nicosia, and wondered how it could be possible for people to be issued identity cards without ascertaining their place of residence.
“I ask this: how did you give an ID to people who never gave you their address? If you did, then you are to blame. The fault, the blame lies with you. What right do you have to make those people pay now?”
