5/28/2023 3:17 pm (act. 5/28/2023 5:33 pm)
There were reports of attacks on election observers in Istanbul and the south-east of the country during Turkey’s presidential elections.
Ali Seker, an MP for the main opposition CHP party, told opposition channel Halk TV on Sunday that he and opposition election officials were attacked by a mob after they complained about irregularities. The incident took place in a village in the province of Sanliurfa, in southeastern Turkey.
Insufficient security forces
CHP faction leader Özgür Özel had previously written on Twitter that election observers were beaten and their phones broken. Özel also criticized the fact that there were not enough security forces in place and called on the authorities to guarantee the security of the election.
According to media reports, there were also several incidents in Istanbul. Halk TV reported that opposition election officials were attacked in Gaziosmanpasa and Ümraniye districts. Online media senika.org wrote that lawyers were not allowed to enter polling stations at a school in Bagcilar district. There were discussions. The information could not be independently verified.
“Elections under very difficult conditions”
Meanwhile, incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu voted in the battle for the presidency in Turkey. Kilicdaroglu voted for Erdogan in the metropolis of Istanbul on Sunday at a school in the capital Ankara. Among other things, the 74-year-old candidate asked his supporters to protect the ballot boxes, “because these elections are taking place in very difficult conditions”. The opposition was vilified, for example.
It is important to end the rule of the current Erdogan. “I invite all citizens to go to the polls to end oppression and authoritarianism and bring true freedom and democracy to this country.” Erdogan said when he voted in Istanbul that it was the first runoff in Turkish history. He praised the strong first-round turnout on May 14 and said he expected another big turnout.
Erdogan as favorite
Polling stations opened at 7:00 am on Sunday and closed at 4:00 pm (CEST). Erdogan, 69, is considered the favourite. He had received the most votes in the first round two weeks ago, but narrowly missed out on the required outright majority.
The results of the second round for the presidential office in Turkey are expected to be available before the results of the first round. Because it is a vote with only two candidates, counting is likely to be faster, the head of Turkey’s electoral authority, Ahmet Yener, said on Sunday morning. He didn’t mention a time. So far, voting has gone smoothly, according to Yener. Officially, the results can only be released after 8 pm. In the past, however, the election commission has generally overruled this rule and allowed earlier reporting.
2.5 million more votes for Erdogan
After the first ballot on May 14, both the state-run Anadolu and the pro-opposition Anka agencies announced in the evening that there would be a second round. However, the election authorities did not announce the final provisional result until around noon the following day. In the first round, Turkey’s approximately 61 million eligible voters also voted for a new parliament, which delayed the count.
The result of the first vote surprised many: polls were predicting a runoff, but Kilicdaroglu, 74, was the favourite. There were around 2.5 million votes between Erdogan and his opponent, which the opposition now wants to match.
Free but unfair
The choice is indicative. Erdogan has been in power for 20 years. Since the introduction of a presidential system in 2018, he has more power than ever. Critics fear the country, with a population of around 85 million, could slide completely into autocracy if he wins again. Kilicdaroglu is head of the social democratic CHP party and represents an alliance of six parties from different camps. He promises to democratize the country. Internationally, the vote in the NATO country is being closely watched.
The first round of voting was considered fundamentally free but unfair. International election watchers have criticized the government’s dominance of the media and the lack of transparency in voting. The YSK electoral authority is also considered to be politicized. A critical point in the implementation of the vote is the numerous election observers at the ballot boxes. Before the second round of voting, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu declared that he wanted to prevent election observers from the organization Oy ve Ötesi from being represented at the polls. The statement caused concern, especially in the opposition.
10th anniversary of the Gezi protests
The vote falls on a symbolic date for the opposition: Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the Gezi protests, critical of the government. Demonstrations in spring 2013 were initially directed against the development of Gezi Park in central Istanbul. They expanded into nationwide demonstrations against the increasingly authoritarian policies of Erdogan, who was still prime minister at the time. This brutally cracked down on largely peaceful protests.
The dominant theme leading up to the second round was migration. Both Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu won the support of right-wing politicians. Kilicdaroglu, in particular, made the repatriation of refugees to Syria his main campaign issue and sharpened his tone compared to the first round.
Tougher crackdown on LGBTQ+
Turkey hosts an estimated 3.4 million refugees from Syria alone. For Europe, it plays an important role in migration policy. Another theme of the election campaign was the bad economic situation with massive inflation. Erdogan has repeatedly insulted the opposition as “terrorists”. The incumbent also announced that he would take more action against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the event of re-election.
In parliament, Erdogan’s government alliance again won an absolute majority in elections two weeks ago. If Kilicdaroglu wins on Sunday, he will not single-handedly get the constitutional amendments needed to abolish the presidential system.
About 61 million people are invited to vote. Turkish citizens in Austria have already voted. Once again there was a record participation in this country. According to the Turkish Embassy in Vienna, 67,726 votes were counted. This corresponds to a turnout of 60.47 percent of the 112,000 eligible voters, or 4.3 percentage points higher than in the first round of voting. In the first round, 72% of Turkish voters in Austria voted for Erdogan. That was a high percentage in an international comparison.
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