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Turkey's Communist Mayor blocked from taking office
Mehmet Fatih Macoglu (centre) celebrates his victory with his supporters and comrades on March 30

TURKISH election authorities moved to block Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) candidate Mehmet Fatih Macoglu from taking office as mayor of Dersim today on “security” grounds.

The Supreme Election Board (YSK) did not give any explanation for the decision which it said was based on the “security problem today.”

Mr Macoglu said: "No explanation was made. They said, ‘We don’t approve giving the mandate today because of a security problem and we don’t want to explain that’.”

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