The Human Rights Association (İHD) is a voluntary human rights organization, independent of the state, government and political parties, which has been observing parliamentary elections, local elections and referendums held in Turkey since its establishment in 1986, making statements and writing reports on their results, and exchanging views on these issues with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
The Election Observation Mission Report of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights on the results of its observation of the 25th Parliamentary Elections held on 7 June 2015 specifically states that the “law does, however, does not create the legal basis for the effective implementation of citizen and international observation as per paragraph 8 of the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document, previous PACE recommendations, and Section II.3.2 of the Code of Good Practice.”[1] In order to allow independent civilian election observers to observe the elections in terms of the exercise of the right to vote and to be elected, which is regulated in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its protocols, the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international conventions to which Turkey is a party, we applied to the Supreme Board of Elections (SBE) on 20 March 2024 to observe the local elections to be held on 31 March 2024 with a total of 300 observers consisting of İHD members and executives assigned by the association in 22 cities.
As in every election term, İHD notified the provincial and district electoral boards of 22 cities with the lists of names of its members who would be independent election observers, and submitted its request to the provincial and district electoral boards of 22 cities to provide the necessary assistance to its independent election observers in the 31 March 2024 local elections. Yet, İHD’s request was rejected, with the decision (no. 2024/784) of the Presidency of the SBE, on the grounds that the persons and organizations that could observe the election were listed in the law and İHD was not in the list.
On 31 March 2024, at the beginning of the voting process, independent election observers assigned by İHD in 22 cities presented at the voting centers to monitor the voting process with their name badges and identifying documents. Violations before the election, rights violations on election day and rights violations after the election were compiled from the information provided by İHD’s independent election observers and the news reported by the press.
[1] https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/2/c/162671.pdf
Click to read the report in English: sr2024May_31 March 2024 Local Elections Report