The Ombudsman decided that the application was inadmissible and the National Human Rights Institution decided that it was a violation of the right to vote and be elected. In line with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the State has the responsibility to deliver voter education to voters who are illiterate, have a hearing impairment and who have a different mother tongue. Voter education will also have the effect of reducing the number of invalid votes cast on election day. According to data from the Turkish Institute of Statistics, most illiterate voters are women. Failing to provide voter education for illiterate voters mostly affects the rights of women voters to effectively exercise their right to vote and be elected. Membership to the Ballot Box Committees and Political Party Observers The selection process of the chairperson and members of the ballot box committees is set forth in Law No 298 on the Basic Provisions of Elections and Voter Registries. The law states that Chairpersons of the ballot box committees “shall be selected from among literate voters who are known to have a good reputation” 11. The Law employs subjective criteria, namely, being known to have a good reputation. The lack of objective criteria and the fact that the lists of names of public officials to be assigned to ballot boxes is prepared by administrators of public agencies and notified to the provincial and district election boards and the selection process of the chairpersons of ballot boxes are all topics that lead to controversy regarding ballot box committees. A similarly problematic practice is the notification by political parties of the names of people in ballot box committees to the provincial and district election boards. This practice leads to events such as citizens being notified as ballot box committee members to the boards by political parties against their will. Citizens in this situation usually find this out when they arrive at the ballot box cast their vote and some of them are not able to do so because of the confusion. Note the following observation: “H.C. who was registered at Ballot box No 1185 at the Necmiye Bilgin Primary and Middle School could not cast her vote in either this ballot box or the ballot box in the Attaroğlu Primary School where she had been officially assigned as a ballot box committee member.” Our independent observers have witnessed similar incidents on the day of the elections on June 7 th: “Voter N.A. arrived at ballot box No. 1149 to cast a vote and saw only then that across his name it was written: ‘this person may not cast a vote at this ballot box since they are officially assigned as a committee member’. However, N.A. stated that he had not made any application whatsoever to be assigned to any ballot box.” 11 Selection of the Ballot Box Committee Chairperson ARTICLE 22- (1st Article of Law 2234, amended on 17 May 1979.) The chairman of the District Electoral Board consults with the regular members brought to the District Electoral Board excluding members from political parties, and prepares a list for each ballot box in the election district all of which are affiliated to the board, containing the names of well-reputed and literate persons amongst voters within or out of the election district, in which the ballot box is going to be established. Each regular board member who is elected from the political parties submit a list, prepared according to the qualifications explained in the above paragraph, within the time restraint defined by the chairman of the District Electoral Board. The party representative who does not submit a list within the previously defined period is considered to relinquish this right. The chairmen of the each Polling Station Committee is drawn by lot amongst the chairman candidates whose names are proposed and written on the list prepared according to the above paragraphs, for the chairmanship of the ballot box. http://www.mevzuat.gov.tr/Metin.Aspx?MevzuatKod=1.4.298&sourceXmlSearch=&MevzuatIliski=0 12