ISTANBUL (AP) — As Turkey geared up for the weekend’s presidential and parliamentary elections, which were posed as the biggest challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his 20 years in power, complaints were mounting about the cleanliness of the vote.
The Turkish opposition has long said that the elections are being held on uneven ground, something that is often reiterated by international observers.
Media coverage is the most obvious example of Erdogan’s advantage over his rivals, although factors such as the use of state resources during the campaign and a questionable interpretation of electoral law also play a role.
Around 90% of the Turkish media is controlled by the government or its allies, according to Reporters Without Borders, ensuring overwhelming coverage for the president. Only a handful of opposition dailies are still in print, and most have switched to purely digital editions.
Erdogan had nearly 33 hours of coverage on the main state television in April, according to opposition members at the media watchdog agency. Rival presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu was given 32 minutes.
The main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, launched legal proceedings last month against TRT for not airing its campaign video.
“Unfortunately, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation has ceased to be an impartial and objective institution and has become the Tayyip Radio and Television Corporation,” CHP lawmaker Tuncay Ozkan said.
The remaining independent media are also increasingly restricted. Media authority RTUK last month fined independent channels Fox News, Halk TV and TELE1 for news and comments deemed to be in breach of regulations. Ilhan Tasci, an opposition-appointed member of RTUK, said that in all three cases the networks were accused of criticizing or questioning the ruling party’s actions.
In a statement following the last presidential and general elections in 2018, observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) enjoyed “an undue advantage, including excessive coverage by government-affiliated public and private media.”
The government’s influence has also moved to social media, where many opposition voices have been muted.
A law on “disinformation” introduced in October provides for penalties of up to three years in prison for disseminating false information “with the sole purpose of creating anxiety, fear or panic among the population”.
Sinan Aygul, the only journalist to be prosecuted under the new law, received a 10-month prison sentence in February. He is free pending his appeal.
“The real goal is to silence all dissenting voices in society,” said Aygul, president of the journalists’ association in Bitlis, in southeastern Turkey. It is “a law that persecutes anyone who expresses an opinion. It goes after not only people, but also media organizations,” he added.
The vague law turns “basic journalistic activities” into crimes, Aygul explained, noting that it could be used during elections to prosecute groups that want to protect the security of the polls and use social media to denounce abuses.
“If there is going to be fraud in the elections, all opposition channels will be silenced using this law,” he said.
The imposition of a state of emergency over the 11 provinces affected by the February earthquake has also raised concerns about how elections will be held in the region. A United Nations report published on April 11 indicated that at least three million people have moved from their homes in the quake zone, many of them to settle in other parts of the country.
Yet just 133,000 people from the quake region have registered to vote outside their home provinces, the Supreme Electoral Council said last month. Ahmet Yener added that the electoral authorities are monitoring the preparations, which include setting up polling stations in temporary shelters.
In 2018, the national state of emergency imposed after a coup attempt in 2106 remained in effect until shortly before the election, which the OSCE said restricted media coverage and the freedoms of assembly and expression.
Erdogan has doubled down on his public appearances, closely watched by most television stations, and uses those official acts to attack his rivals. At a ceremony on Friday for Eid al-Fitr last month to mark renovations to Istanbul’s Blue Mosque, he accused the opposition of “working with terrorist groups.”
The previous afternoon, the leaders of four AKP-allied political parties were present at an event to inaugurate the delivery of natural gas from the Black Sea, despite the fact that none have a government post.
Other big projects presented ahead of the vote include Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, built by Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear power company, and several defense developments.
Critics also point out that electoral law has been stretched to allow government ministers to keep their jobs while running for seats in parliament, despite legal requirements to the contrary.
The electoral board has been criticized in the past for leaning in favor of the AKP’s objections to the poll.
In the 2019 vote, the winning candidate for mayor of Istanbul, who emerged victorious, had to face a rerun of the vote over AKP complaints of irregularities. The results of the district and city councilors’ votes, which had used the same ballot boxes and favored the AKP, were not questioned.
Adem Souzer, a professor at Istanbul University Law School, told the opposition Cumhuriyet daily that voters had lost confidence in the electoral authorities. “There is a widespread suspicion in a significant part of society that the elections will be rigged,” he said.
