TURKISH ELECTION

Southland Times, Issue 18973, 21 June 1923, Page 5

TURKISH ELECTION

ARRANGING THE BALLOT. VICTORY FOR KEMALISTS ASSURED. (By Telegraph— Press Assn. — Copyright). (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, June 19. The Daily Telegraph’s Constantinople correspondent describes a comic opera ballot which is ensuring Kemal Pasha an overwhelming victory at the general election. He aays: “I witnessed a typical election at Pera, where the polling station was three tables and a few chairs in the centre of the roadway, with national flags covering the tables and a portrait of Kemal beside the officials’ desk. On the gate nearby hung a list of thirty names of Defence of Rights nominees. There was no opposition list, but when a voter presented his Turkish nationality paper be was handed a blank sheet of paper on which he could write the names of any candidates except those on the Defence of Rights list. As the majority of voters were unable to read or write naturally they did not put down their own nominees, so they took the blank paper to a third table, where they were given a printed list of Defence nominees which they dropped into the ballot box. I watched the proceedings for an hour and no one used the blank sheet. The same game is going on throughout the country. Opposition candidates are almost unheard of. Mustapha’s victory may, however, be too sweeping, as opposition acts as a safety valve.