17 May 2023; MEMO: The deputy chair of the Republican People's Party (CHP), Turkiye's main opposition party, announced his resignation yesterday.
"In order not to harm the election process, our chairperson and presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, with whom I have been honoured to walk side by side, I am resigning from my post as the deputy chair of CHP's information and communication technologies department due to negative public opinion," Onursal Adiguzel said in a tweet.
"This was in spite of the fact that our systems worked and sustained no technical malfunctions on the night of the elections," he added.
On Sunday, the aide was heavily criticised by CHP supporters with the start of the preliminary results of the legislative and presidential elections in Turkiye; because of the delay in broadcasting election results.
On the night, CHP's Istanbul and Ankara Mayors Ekrem Imamoglu and Mansur Yavas, key figures who would become vice presidents if the opposition were to win, gave statements claiming news agencies were reporting incorrect data. This pushed CHP supporters to target Adiguzel for failing to manage data flows and broadcast live election results, the Daily Sabah news agency reported.
Adiguzel said the CHP "has never guaranteed a live election result display that would be open to all."
On Monday, the Turkish Elections Authority announced that a second round of presidential elections will be held on 28 May between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his main rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, for the first time in the country's 100-year history.
