The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) cites, among other things, the government’s continued efforts to dissolve the left-wing pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). For example, HDP presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas was captured in the run-up to the 2018 elections. He’s still stuck. Although on paper there were real political alternatives for the Turkish voters, the OSCE argues that the persecution of politicians prevents true diversity.
Dutch MP Farah Karimi of the GroenLinks party agreed with the lack of diversity. She led the OSCE observer mission in Turkey. “Unfortunately, women were underrepresented in these elections,” said Karimi. According to Karimi, it was also difficult for hundreds of thousands of Turks to exercise their right to vote. Almost no aid had been set up to enable the victims of the earthquakes in Turkey to vote.
Head of the delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe also sees the structural obstacles to the Turkish elections. While Turkish democracy is “amazingly resilient, Turkey is not meeting the basic principles for holding democratic elections,” said Frank Schwabe. “Important political and social figures are in prison even after rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, freedom of the media is severely restricted and a climate of self-censorship prevails.”