İHD REPORT ON THE LOCAL ELECTORAL PROCESS AND 31 MARCH ELECTIONS
There has been extensive criticism about the failure to hold the local elections of 31 March 2019 in Turkey in line with the principle of democratic, fair and just elections. Indeed, reports on previous elections drafted by such international independent bodies carrying out official election monitoring as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) along with those penned by non-governmental organizations like the Human Rights Association (İHD) and Association for Monitoring Equal Rights (AMER) conducting election monitoring on the national level justify such criticism. The post-election incidents have very much corroborated such concerns.
One of the striking points about the local elections of 31 March 2019 is the fact that they will be held with 101 municipalities (94 of which belong to HDP) with appointed state trustees after having been seized by the government through the state of emergency (SoE) decree laws along with those municipalities of the ruling party like İstanbul, Ankara, Bursa, Düzce, Niğde and Balıkesir, the mayors of which were forced to step down and replaced with others elected by municipal councils, in other words, with appointed mayors. İHD, hereby, presents its assessments and recommendations in line with the OSCE criteria on electoral processes and violation allegations up to today.
Click to read the full report in English: 31 March Elections Report_IHD_May 2019