Opening of Envelopes, counting and listing of votes ⁽¹⁾

(Amended by Article 20 of Law 5980 on 8 April 2010)

The counting and listing of votes shall start immediately and be conducted openly and without interruption. Any complaints and objections that may arise shall not suspend the procedure.

The chairman of the polling station committee shall show those present that the tally sheet is empty and bears no writings.

In order to ensure an orderly count and listing of ballots the chairman of the polling station committee shall assign;

a) One member to pass him each envelope in the ballot box,
b) Two members to record the ballot counts on the tally sheet.
c) One member to place and safeguard on the table in an organized manner, all the ballots that are counted and listed as well as the envelopes that are opened,

On the tally sheets, first, the name of each political party shall be written in the topmost cell of the columns from left to right according to the order followed in the joint ballot. Then, a column shall be designated for each independent candidate if applicable, the names and surnames of the independent candidates shall be written in the cells at the top of the columns following the order in the joint ballot. (Annex Sentence: annexed on 13/3/2018 in accordance with article 10 of Law 7102) After all of these, in case of there is alliance of political parties, enough column will be inserted into the joint ballot paper in accordance with their order in it and the name of the alliances are written on the top of the columns.

The member who is assigned by the chairman of the polling station committee shall take one ballot envelope out of the ballot box each time and hand it over to the chairman. The chairman shall open the envelope and read the front side of the ballot in such a way so as to ensure that everyone sees and hears. (Annex Sentence: annexed on 13/3/2018 in accordance with article 10 of Law 7102) In the event of elections in which more than one vote is used in the same envelope, the ballot papers should be upturned on the table and classified according to the type of the elections before being read and procedures should completed in accordance with article 9.

The name of the party or the name and surname of the independent candidate for which a ‘YES’ seal has been stamped in the section reserved for that party or independent member shall be read out loud. In the elections for the headmen (muhtar), the names and surnames of the headmen candidates on the ballots belonging to these candidates shall be read out loud after being taken out of the ballot envelope.

(Annex Sentence: annexed on 13/3/2018 in accordance with article 10 of Law 7102) During the presidential and parliamentary elections that took place together, first the ballot papers for the presidential elections should be counted and listed.

In the metropolitan municipality elections, the counting and listing of the ballots shall be conducted first for the metropolitan city mayor’s office, then for the district mayor’s office and lastly for the members of the municipal council. In other municipal elections, the counting and listing of the ballots shall be conducted first for the mayor’s office, and then for the members of the municipal council.

(Amended paragraph: Amended on 13/3/2018 in accordance with article 10 of Law 7102) During the elections of the local administration bodies:
a) In metropolis, the mayor of the metropolitan municipality, mayor of municipality and membership of municipality council and muhtarlık,
b) In other provinces, the mayor of municipality, provincial assembly membership of municipality council and muhtarlık,
ballot papers with regards to abovementioned elections are counted and listed in sequential order mentioned above.

(Amended on 13/3/2018 in accordance with the article 10 of Law 7102) In the elections where more than one ballot is placed in the same envelope, if there is a missing ballot in the ballot envelope, notes shall be taken in the minutes of the polling station results, once all envelopes are opened, stating which election type the missing ballots belong to, the number of missing ballots and the total number of empty envelopes from which no ballot was produced.

Each vote cast for a political party or an independent candidate, which is not objected to, shall be recorded, right after being read out loud, on the numbers in the column reserved for that political party or independent candidate on the tally sheet, starting with the number one, by means of crossing each number according to its order. The chairman of the polling station committee shall constantly check to see that this transaction is done according to procedure.

The valid ballots and envelopes that have been read shall be placed on the table in an organized manner and safeguarded.

(Annex paragraph: annexed on 13/3/2018 in accordance with article 10 Law 7102) In the event of stamping the “YES” stamp within the stage of alliances;
a) In the column allocated for political parties;
b) Both in the column allocated for the political party and in the column allocated under the name of alliances;
c) Stamping outside of the column allocated under the name of the alliances partially which also goes under the column of political parties,

Above-mentioned ballot papers would be deem valid and should be added under the political parties in the minutes of the election counting. Apart from these situations if yes stamp only put in the column allocated for the alliance without indicating any party, these votes should be valid and added for the alliance in the minutes of the election counting starting from one and signed one by one.

Ballots that are deemed void or ballots that should not be taken into account although they are valid, and ballots with uncertainty as to their validity or uncertainty in terms of whether they should be taken into account, or ballots that are objected to shall all be separated without being listed on the tally sheet and safeguarded by the chairman of the polling station committee.

(Amended on 13/3/2018 in accordance with article 10 of Law 7102) Once all envelopes are opened and the ballots read, the number of votes counted with no objection and listed in both tally sheets, and the final figures written in the column of each political party, independent candidate or joint ballots of alliances shall be compared and the number of valid votes received by each political party, independent candidate or jointly by alliances shall be checked by the chairman to see whether the figures are the same on both tally sheets. If the number of votes is the same, the valid votes received by each political party, independent candidate or jointly by alliances shall be added up and the total number of votes deemed valid with no objection shall be noted down in numbers and in writing in the special minutes arranged for that specific election type by the polling station committee.

(Amended on 13/3/2018 in accordance with article 10 of Law 7102) If the valid number of votes received by each political party, independent candidate or jointly by alliances that have been written down in the cells reserved for those candidates are not the same in the two tally sheets, a second count shall be made. In the second count, the valid ballots shall be read once again one by one and written down in the two empty and unwritten tally sheets. If the number of votes in these two tally sheets is the same, the valid number of votes received by each political party, independent candidate or jointly by alliances shall be added up and the total, which has not been objected to, shall be noted in the special minutes belonging to that specific election type by the polling station committee in writing and in numbers.

If the number of votes written in the tally sheets after the second count do not match, a third count shall be made in accordance with the procedure describe above and written down in one tally sheet by the member of the polling station committee who does not represent a political party, if applicable, or by a committee member who will be chosen by the chairman, and the results of the count will constitute the basis for the subsequent procedures. In cases where more than one count is made, the tally sheets used in these counts shall be marked indicating which count they pertain to in capital letters and all tally sheets shall be safeguarded.

Once the final valid envelope in the opened ballot box is opened and read, the chairman of the polling station shall check to see whether there are any other valid envelopes left in that ballot box, the number of opened envelopes and the number of valid envelopes initially written in the minutes shall be compared and the results noted down in the minutes.

Once the valid votes are noted down on the tally sheets, the ballots, about which there is uncertainty as to whether they should be deemed valid or taken into account, shall be assessed one by one by the polling station committee and a decision shall be reached, such a decision shall be noted down in the minutes and signed and sealed.

(Amended on 13/3/2018 in accordance with article 10 of Law 7102) The ballots that have been deemed valid and taken into account as per the polling station committee decision shall be noted down in the column reserved for the political party, independent candidate or joint vote for the alliances to which they belong. The total number of ballots that are deemed valid or taken into account in this manner shall be noted down in the special minutes reserved for that specific election type.

Ballots that are not deemed valid or not taken into account shall be packed separately, sealed, the number written down on the package and saved. These ballots shall not be burned, torn or destroyed. The number of such ballots shall be written down in the special minutes arranged for that specific election type.

(Amended on 13/3/2018 in accordance with article 10 of Law 7102) Once the procedures described above are completed, the total number of votes received by political parties, and independent candidates or jointly by alliances in the tally sheets shall be added up and each total shall be written down at the bottom of the column reserved for that political party or independent candidate.

(Amended on 13/3/2018 in accordance with article 10 of Law 7102) The votes received by the political parties, independent candidates or jointly by alliances on each tally sheet shall be declared out loud by the chairman of the polling station committee for those present to hear.

Once such a declaration has been made, the results in the tally sheet shall be written down in the results minutes. The accuracy of this information shall be checked by the chairman of the polling station by means of comparing with the results of the tally sheets, after which the polling station results minutes shall be signed and sealed by the chairman and members of the committee.

All these procedures shall be noted down in the minutes and signed and sealed by the chairman and members of the polling station committee.

The party observers can be present at the counting table and see the ballots. However, if the number of party observers is more than five, the chairman of the polling station committee shall draw lots to determine the names of the five observers who will be entitled to observe by the table. names, with those present bearing witness, and five party observers shall be chosen to observe by the counting table, each from a separate political party. A space shall be designated for other observers and independent candidate observers allowing them to observe the counting procedures closely.

₍₁₎ The former heading of this article ‘Opening the Envelopes’ was amended by Article 20 of Law 5980 on 8 April 2010 to read as seen in the current text.