CUMHURIYET- Columnist Orhan Birgit comments on numerous and conflicting reports of efforts to postpone November’s elections. A summary of his column is as follows:
Those claiming that underhanded maneuvers are taking place to postpone the Nov. 3 elections have indicated that three parties are spearheading these efforts. They allege that high-ranking officials at the Motherland Party (ANAP), the True Path Party (DYP) and the New Turkey Party (YTP) are involved. Among those fingered is Husamettin Ozkan, the YTP’s ‘number-two’ man. There are even reports –- as yet undenied –- that some weeks ago during a meeting at the Hilton Hotel, Ozkan tried to head off Kemal Dervis’s joining the People’s Republican Party (CHP) by telling him there was no rush to choose a party, as the elections would eventually be postponed.
Although it had been announced that Ozkan and YTP leader Ismail Cem would meet together in Istanbul after Cem returned from Germany last Friday, Ozkan said that he would be unable to be there owing to important contacts in Ankara, which may be evidence of Ozkan’s role in these postponement efforts.
Claims by leader Tansu Ciller in yesterday’s Hurriyet and Star that she was offered the prime minister’s post were she to lead postponement efforts have only strengthened suspicions of underhanded tactics. Ciller said she firmly turned down this offer, but others claim that the DYP was never involved. ANAP leaders have denied Ciller’s account and even claimed that Ciller herself put the prime minister post on the table as a bargaining chip.
The plot thickened with yesterday’s Sabah. Sabah Ankara representative Engin Ozgonul said the postponement plotters would use an indirect method in order to avoid the public disapproval and wrath more open efforts should surely draw. This indirect tactic would consist of forming a front to pass changes to the Political Parties and Elections Law, changes which the public favors as well. If these changes were passed before November, so the plot goes, the Higher Board of Elections (YSK) would have to postpone the polls, since there won’t be enough time for them to be implemented. According to Sabah, ‘The DYP, ANAP and YTP -- who are playing the leading roles in this plan -- sent DYP deputy group leader Nevzat Ercan to Necmettin Erbakan to court the Felicity Party’s (FP) support. ‘If this report is true, then Ciller’s account cannot be. If on the other hand it’s not true, why haven’t the DYP or Ercan spoken up to deny it?
In any case, clearly there are secret activities going on behind closed doors. Even while all the political parties are publicly preparing for the November polls, some of them are also working to postpone them.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION