Turkey’s presidential election is going to a runoff after none of the candidates managed to secure an outright win.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the country’s ruling parties enjoyed an unjustified advantage over opposition parties who had faced unequal conditions for campaigning and biased state media coverage of the contest was a concern.
Tens of millions of Turkish voters went to the polls on Sunday to cast their vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections.
No candidate in the presidential first round having won 50%; as such the race will go to a run-off in two weeks time between Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (49.52%), the incumbent, and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (44.88%), backed by several opposition parties.
A nationalist third candidate, Sinan Oğan, emerged as a potential kingmaker after picking up 5.17% of the vote. He could be a “kingmaker” in the runoff depending on which candidate he endorses, analysts say.
The presidential vote will decide not only who leads Turkey but also whether it reverts to a more secular, democratic path, how it will handle its severe cost of living crisis, and manage key relations with Russia, the Middle East and the West. Critics fear Erdogan will govern ever more autocratically if he wins another term.
OSCE’s observations for the elections
Turkey’s High Election Board (YSK) showed lack of transparency in its handling of Sunday’s elections and biased state media coverage of the contest was a concern, observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said.
An OSCE delegation said current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the country’s ruling parties enjoyed an unjustified advantage over opposition parties who had faced unequal conditions for campaigning.
“I regret to note that the election administration’s work was lacking in transparency, as well as the overwhelming bias of the public media and the limitations to freedom of speech,” Ambassador Jan Petersen, head of the ODIHR election observation mission, told the Ankara press conference.
Petersen said the general elections were “mostly peaceful” despite a number of incidents and the YSK had worked efficiently. The delegation praised the high turnout, stating that it was a clear indicator of a “strong democratic spirit”.
“The process for handling complaints at all levels of the election administration lacked transparency and the Supreme Electoral Council decisions that were published generally were not sufficiently reasoned,” the International Election Observation Mission report stated.
“Turkish democracy is proving to be amazingly resilient. This election had a high turnout and offered a real choice. However, Türkiye does not fulfil the basic principles for holding a democratic election,” said Frank Schawabe, head of the PACE delegation.
He called on the Turkish government to ensure press freedom, adding that favourable coverage of Erdogan and ruling parties by the Turkish state broadcaster amounted to censorship.
The OSCE mission said it would pay close attention to the May 28 presidential runoff.
Source: Reuters, Guardian, Euronews