ANKARA (AFP/Xinhua) -- Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country should make a new constitution to embrace the dreams of all its people, semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.
“Let’s make a new, civil, libertarian constitution that embraces the dreams of all the people of this country,” Erdogan, who was speaking in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, was quoted as saying.
He made the remarks at a groundbreaking ceremony in Turkey’s largest Kurdish-majority city which was still affected by the Feb. 6 earthquakes, it reported.
The remarks came amid concerns that Turkey’s quake survivors fear they will be left out of May vote.
Ali, a 23-year-old student, lost everything in Turkey’s earthquake.
His parents are missing and his ancient hometown, Antakya, lies in ruins.
To fight back, Ali, who like many survivors declines to give his full name, has launched a drive to ensure that more than three million people displaced by the February disaster can vote in next month’s general election.
The May 14 ballot promises to be perilous for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a dominant leader forced into the unusual position of apologizing for his government’s response to Turkey’s worst disaster of modern times.
Rescuers and relief workers took days to reach some ravaged areas, creating a sense of abandonment and directing anger at officials for a death toll that has topped 50,000.
“It’s important to reflect this anger at the polls,” said Ali, who now lives in Ankara.
With friends, he launched an appeal on Twitter asking political parties to pay the bus tickets of students who had to leave Antakya but want to return to cast their votes.
The main opposition CHP party has pledged its support.
People who sought shelter in cities such as Ankara, Istanbul and Mersin on Turkey’s southern coast had until April 2 to register their new voting address.
Those who missed out have to return to their ruined cities to cast ballots.
Erdogan’s opponents view the early deadline as a covert government effort to suppress the protest vote.
“People lost loved ones and everything that was precious to them. Most were in no condition to take care of their election registration,” said Ali Oztunc, a CHP deputy representing Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter of the 7.8-magnitude quake.
Only 50,000 of the 820,000 registered voters in Kahramanmaras were able to change their registration, according to Oztunc, who estimates that half of the province’s residents have left.
That means hundreds of thousands will have to somehow find their way back to take part in what is widely seen as Turkey’s most important election in its post-Ottoman history.
“It is impossible to transport so many people,” said Oztunc.
“It would take thousands of buses and that would create a giant traffic jam. No party can organize that.”
The CHP’s leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, is the opposition’s joint candidate in the knife-edge vote.
The party’s vice president, Onursal Adiguzel, openly accuses officials of trying to tamp down turnout among the displaced.
“The authorities could have extended the deadline to assist with the registration,” Adiguzel said.
“But they are afraid of the victims,” he said. “They are doing everything to hinder the vote.”
Forced to leave Kahramanmaras, father-of-two Abdullah said he was actively discouraged by civil servants from changing his registration address.
“I was told that I would lose my rights to public aid for earthquake victims,” Abdullah said at his temporary home in Ankara.
“So I kept my address in Kahramanmaras. But I don’t know how I’ll be able to go there and vote.”