Following clashes due to an election board decision in Turkey, the pro-Kurdish DEM party said today that it was objecting to a ruling that annulled the election of its mayoral candidate in the eastern city Van.

In its statement, the DEM (Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party), said "We made our objection to the Supreme Election Board canceling the candidacy of our Van Greater City Mayor Abdullah Zeydan and giving the mandate to the AKP candidate."

Van İl Seçim Kurulu, iktidarın talimatıyla halkın iradesine darbe yaptı ve mazbatayı gayrimeşru bir şekilde AKP’li Abdulahat Arvas’a verme kararı aldı. Ancak süreç bitmedi. Halkın iradesine yapılan bu darbeye karşı hukukçularımız yarın Yüksek Seçim Kurulu’na gerekli itirazları… pic.twitter.com/4QewyrWZba

— DEM Parti (@DEMGenelMerkezi) April 2, 2024

Violent protests and detentions

Following Zeydan's overturn, violent protests broke out and lasted through the night in Van province near Turkey's border with Iran. 

As these protests expanded to several cities in the region and intensified as some protesters even lit police barricades on fire, the local governor's office banned all protests for 15 days. 

Today, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that 89 people were arrested, 26 of them in Van province, for taking part in unauthorized rallies and chanting slogans in support of a "separatist terror organization", referring to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which is blacklisted by the Turkish government and its Western allies. 

29 people were also arrested in the southeastern Yuksekova district of Hakkari, following violent confrontations between protesters and police late April 2. 

DEM, which Turkey believes to be tied to PKK, and the third biggest party in the parliament, claimed on March 31 the mayorships of large towns in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast, including the region's largest city Diyarbakir.

Opposition party CHP, the Republican People's Party which led in the local elections in Istanbul and other big cities, has supported DEM in its battle against the Van ruling and said that a delegation from its party will go to Van today. 

What went down 

DEM's Abdullah Zeydan had gathered over 55 percent of the vote in Van in local elections on March 31, however, the regional electoral commission decided he was ineligible and gave the city hall to a candidate, with a score of 27 percent, from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) instead.

This decision came after a last-minute reversal of a court verdict that had taken back his right to stand for election.

Zeydan was elected to the HDP, currently DEM in 2015. In 2016, he was arrested after criticizing the Turkish army's air campaign against Kurdish militants in the southeast.