Turkish Election Council Receives No Requests for Postponement of Elections

ANTAKYA (Sputnik) - Turkey's Supreme Electoral Council has not received any requests for the postponement of the next general elections due to the recent earthquakes, especially given that the country's president has no power in this regard, Mehmet Yakupoglu, a representative of the opposition Republican People's Party in the council, told Sputnik.

Turkish broadcaster reported on Thursday, citing its own sources, that the general elections in the country could be postponed for a period from six months to a year, with the Supreme Election Council expected to take the corresponding initiative at the request of the ruling party.

"The government has not sent any requests to the council concerning a possible postponement of the elections. The council is currently doing the routine work. We are assessing the damage in the regions hit by the earthquakes and establishing how many employees were killed or injured," Yakupoglu said.

The politician also recalled that, according to the Turkish law, the elections could be postponed only by the decision of the parliament in the event of war and by a majority vote.

"There are no legitimate grounds for postponing the elections. We are preparing for the elections on June 18, if there is no decision that they will be held on May 14," Yakupoglu told Sputnik.

At the same time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's statement about him needing a year to restore all the houses destroyed in the earthquakes may signal his desire to postpone the elections, the opposition politician said.

On February 6, parts of Turkey and Syria were hit by a series of powerful earthquakes and aftershocks. The death toll from the disaster in Turkey has exceeded 36,000. The Syrian Health Ministry said late Tuesday that the final death toll from the earthquake in the government-controlled part of the country had reached 1,414 people, but the United Nations estimated the total number of deaths in Syria at 8,500.