Ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in Turkey in June 2023, it is necessary to briefly describe the state of democracy and human rights in Turkey. In order to analyze the current political situation, one must briefly recall the developments in the last decade.
The following are the IHDs recommendations to ensure fair elections:
- As the OSCE has stated in all its reports on the elections in Turkey, regulations should be made or the SBE should grant permission for independent election observation by Turkish citizens and civil society organizations in accordance with the Copenhagen Criteria.
- The SBE is not a supreme court like the Constitutional Court. An individual application procedure to the Constitutional Court against the decisions of the SBE should be provided.
- A census should be conducted to end the speculation about the voter registers in Turkey and to create a new voter registry under the full control of the SBE. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people were kept at home under quarantine conditions and ensured to follow the rules. As was done in the past, all citizens can be kept at home on a Sunday so that a real census can be conducted.
- Until the voter registers are renewed, it should be ensured that electoral ink or stain is used in the elections.
- In order to ensure election and ballot box security, the amendments to the law that we have criticized in this report should be withdrawn and arrangements should be made to ensure the formation of an election administration in accordance with the principle of integrity of elections and to ensure trust in provincial/district election boards and ballot box committees, especially the SBE.
- The ballot box result reports with wet signatures should be handed to all voters who voted in that ballot box, if they wish, so that voters can also be observers in their own ballot boxes when the ballot boxes are unsealed.
- A secure, online system available to the supervision of political parties should be established to ensure that the ballot box result minutes are uploaded to the system at the same time and the ballot box result minutes of the entire country should be announced unofficially 2 hours after the ballot boxes are unsealed. This is quite easy to do as all schools in Turkey where votes are cast have internet access.
- Since the current electoral laws contain changes in favor of the political power, all opposition political parties and all social dissidence organizations with an interest in the elections must cooperate on election and ballot box security. Such cooperation will lead to an organization all over Turkey, which will minimize violations.
To read the full report in English, please click: sr20221205_IHD Elections Report