Democratic election process in Western Thrace overshadowed

The allegation, that although they are registered in the electoral registers belonging to the other regions of Greece, the soldiers of the 4th Army Corps stationed in Western Western Thrace have been had sign the documents stating that they would like to vote in the region, is getting stronger.

Is it desired that the soldiers vote in Western Thrace instead in the regions where they are registered?

The first allegation with regard to the issue first appeared in the Sunday supplement of the daily Eleftherotipia on 19 September 2009. It was brought on in the concerning news that the soldiers serving their time in the 4th Army Corps had been had sign a document stating that they did not want to vote in the places where they had been born.

On 29 September 2009, Yannis Yanginis from the daily Paratiritis brought on again the same allegation. In the news, Yanginis stated that since they did not want to lose their right to vote, the soldiers were going to vote in the region where they were serving their time, adding that they did not suppose that those soldiers, who had signed the regarding document, were not from Thrace. Yanginis expressed that the soldiers from Thrace were already serving teir time in the region where they had been born, and wrote that in case the regarding allegations reflected the truth, a few hundred soldiers serving in the region were going to vote in the prefectures of anthi, Rhodope and Evros. Moreover, Yanginis expressed that it was here talked about the soldiers who were not from Thrace, adding that the votes of the soldiers, who were going to vote in the region were not going to the the Muslim candidates, but to the Christian ones.

Again according to the news published on the web page of the daily Olay on the same day, on 29 September 2009, it is stated that the allegations, that the soldiers serving their time in the region have been had sign official committment statements, are intensifying. In the news, it is expressed that a similar practice was experienced during the time of independent list, adding that it is quite worrying that such practices repeat. In the news, it is asked whether the balance of the distribution of votes in Western Thrace is intended to be changed by the votes of the soldiers who are asked to vote in the region although they are registered in the electoral registers of the other regions.

Habipoglu: For a democratic election, correctness of the allegations should be investigated

With regard to the issue, Halit Habipoglu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), stated that “In case the regarding allegations brought forward first in the daily Eleftherotipia, later in the daily Paratiritis, and finally in the news on the web page of the daily Olay came true, then it was about the disruption of democratic election process. If the voting right of those, who are going to vote in the region where they are currently staying instead in the the regions where they are registered in the electoral registers, was practised without will of voters and was serving to a conscious campaign, state of law would substantially suffer from this”.

Habipoglu said that they were already investigating the cocerning allegations, and stated: “Representing the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace, we, Federation of Western of Western Thrace Turks and the Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association, brought on the regarding issue during the Jubilee Congress of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) with the theme of right to political participation that was held from 29 September to 2 October 2009 in Brussels. Upon the recommendation of the FUEN Presidium, we prepared a text of call on the issue which we submitted to the FUEN Assembly of Delegates, and could subsequently achieve its adoption by the FUEN Assembly of Delegates”.