ISTANBUL (AP) – As Turkey heads towards presidential and parliamentary elections over the weekend that are proving to be the toughest challenge facing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his 20 years as head of state, complaints are mounting over the fairness of the vote.
Turkey’s opposition has long claimed that the country’s elections are being held on an uneven playing field, a claim often supported by international observers.
Media coverage is the most obvious example of where Erdogan enjoys an advantage over his opponents, but factors such as the use of state resources in the election campaign and the questionable interpretation of electoral law also play a role.
According to Reporters Without Borders, around 90% of Turkey’s media is in the hands of the government or its supporters, giving the president overwhelming airtime. Only a handful of opposition newspapers are still in print, most having switched to online-only editions.
In April, according to opposition members of the broadcasting regulator, Erdogan was given almost 33 hours of airtime on the main state television station. His presidential opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu received 32 minutes.
The main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party or CHP, last month took legal action against broadcaster TRT for not showing its campaign video.
“Unfortunately, the Turkish Radio and TV Society has evolved from an impartial and objective institution to the Tayyip Radio and TV Society,” said CHP MP Tuncay Ozkan.
The remaining independent media are also facing increasing restrictions. Last month, broadcasting regulator RTUK fined independent broadcasters Fox News, Halk TV and TELE1 for posting news and commentary it deemed to be in breach of regulations. Ilhan Tasci, an opposition-appointed RTUK member, said in all three cases the broadcasters have been accused of criticizing or questioning the ruling party’s actions.
In a statement following the last presidential and parliamentary elections in 2018, observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe noted that Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) “gained an undue advantage, including excessive reporting by those close to the government Organizations public and private media companies.”
The government’s reach has also been expanded through social media, where many opposition voices have retreated.
A “disinformation” law introduced in October provides for a prison sentence of up to three years for spreading false information “for the sole purpose of creating fear, anxiety or panic in the public”.
Sinan Aygul, the only journalist to be prosecuted under the new law, was sentenced to 10 months in prison in February. He is currently at large while appealing the case.
“The ultimate goal is to silence all dissenting voices in society,” said Aygul, chairman of the journalists’ association in Bitlis, southeastern Turkey. It is “a law targeting anyone who expresses an opinion. It is aimed not only at individuals but also at media organs,” he said.
The poorly defined law criminalizes “basic journalistic activities,” Aygul said, adding that it could be used during the election to target audiences who want to protect ballot box security and use social media to expose abuses.
“If there is fraud in the elections, all opposition channels will be silenced by the application of this law,” he said.
The declaration of a state of emergency in the 11 provinces affected by February’s earthquake has also raised concerns about the conduct of elections in the region. A UN report released on April 11 says at least 3 million people have been displaced from their homes in the earthquake zone, many of them en route to other parts of Turkey.
However, only 133,000 people from the quake region have registered to vote outside their home provinces, the head of the Supreme Electoral Council said last month. Ahmet Yener added that election officials were overseeing preparations, including polling stations in shelters.
In 2018, after an attempted coup in 2016, a nationwide state of emergency was in force until shortly before the elections, which according to the OSCE restricted the media and freedom of assembly and expression.
Erdogan has intensified his public appearances, which are closely watched by most TV channels, and uses these official duties to attack his rivals. At a ceremony on Friday of Eid al-Fitr last month to mark the renovation of Istanbul’s Blue Mosque, he accused the opposition of “collaborating with terrorist groups.”
The previous evening, the leaders of four political parties allied to the AKP were present at an event to launch shipments of natural gas from the Black Sea, although none held government positions.
Other major projects launched before the vote include Turkey’s first nuclear reactor, built by Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear power company, and several defense developments.
Critics also point to the bending of the electoral law to allow government ministers to run as parliamentary candidates while remaining in office, despite legal requirements to the contrary.
The electoral board, meanwhile, has previously been criticized for siding with the AKP’s objections to elections.
In the 2019 local elections, the opposition’s victorious mayoral candidate for Istanbul faced a rerun after complaints from the AKP about electoral irregularities. Results of district and city council votes collected in the same boxes favoring the AKP were not challenged.
Adem Sozuer of Istanbul University’s Faculty of Law told the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet that voters had lost confidence in the electoral authorities. “There is a suspicion in a significant part of society that elections are being rigged,” he said.