The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has continued its call for a do-over election in Istanbul, in order to dispel any doubts over the results, which were marred by irregularities.

AK Party representative at the Supreme Election Council (YSK) Recep Özel told Anadolu Agency (AA) yesterday that "if the opposition thinks they will win the elections by a landslide, why do they keep refusing a new election. [Because] the election [in Istanbul] was a sham." Özel underscored that the elections should be redone to eliminate any doubts over the results.

Commenting on the YSK's rejection of the AK Party demand to prevent voters who were dismissed from their public duties via a decree law to vote on Tuesday, Özel said the YSK only rejected one point out of a total of nine, while accepting to investigate the eight others.

He added that the YSK wanted the district election boards, Courts of First Instance and other relevant institutions to communicate documents regarding the objections within five days. As the objection process is still being evaluated, the YSK has started to come up wit

h conclusions regarding certain issues. The YSK had previously declared that it will not award the certificate of election to elected mayors who were previously dismissed by a decree issued during the state of emergency due to their affiliation with a terrorist group. Meanwhile, the top election body decided yesterday to investigate balloting a number of committee members in Istanbul's Maltepe district who the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) claimed were not civil servants.

However, the YSK also decided to delay discussing the objections against polls in Istanbul's Büyükçekmece district until a final decision on Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality elections is reached.