Reply by the Chief Returning Officer
to Mr Izzet Izcan’s written
statement
In response to today's written statement by the General
Secretary of the United Cyprus Party, Mr Izzet Izcan, in which he called for the
annulment of the European Parliament Elections of 25 May 2014 exposing various
arguments, the Chief Returning Officer, Mr
Constantinos Nicolaides, states the following:
“The right to vote in the elections of 25 May 2014 was
automatically granted to 58,637 Turkish Cypriots, of which 1,869 have exercised
their right to vote. Therefore, Mr Izzet Izcan’s claim that the Republic of
Cyprus has supposedly denied the right to vote and to stand for election to
30,000 Turkish Cypriots does not stand to reason. What’s more, Mr Izcan himself
freely exercised his right to vote.
It is noted that the Election Service of the Ministry of
Interior has done everything possible to facilitate the exercise of the Turkish
Cypriots’ right to vote.
Specifically, 50 special polling stations for Turkish
Cypriots were in operation, buses were rented by the Ministry of Interior to
transfer Turkish Cypriots from the crossing points to the polling centers,
ballots were bilingual (in Greek and Turkish) and a Turkologist – Translator was
present at every special polling station for Turkish Cypriots as well during the
submission of nominations.
Moreover, the European Elections website was available,
for the first time, in Greek, Turkish and English, the notices for the
submission of nominations as well as the part of the notice regarding the
distribution of voters at the special polling stations for Turkish Cypriots were
translated into Turkish and were published as paid advertisements in Turkish
Cypriot newspapers. Also, an information leaflet in Turkish was distributed at
the crossing points.
Lastly, the Head of the Election Service of the Ministry
of Interior participated in two information broadcasts in RIK Biz’s bilingual
programme, providing relevant information."
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