Turkiye's opposition denounces fairness of vote under Erdogan

As Turkiye heads for presidential and parliamentary elections at the weekend that are shaping up to be the strongest challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his 20 years as leader complaints are growing about the fairness of the voteTurkiyes opposition has long said that the countrys elections are played out on an unlevel playing field claims often backed by international observersMedia coverage stands out as the most obvious example of where Erdogan enjoys an advantage over his opponents but factors such as the use of state resources while campaigning and the questionable interpretation of electoral law also featureSome 90 per cent of Turkiyes media is in the hands of the government or its backers according to Reporters Without Borders ensuring overwhelming airtime for the president Only a handful of opposition newspapers remain in print most having transitioned to onlineonly editionsDuring April Erdogan received nearly 33 hours of airtime on the main staterun TV station according to opposition members of the broadcasting watchdog His presidential opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu received 32 minutesThe main opposition party the Republican Peoples Party or CHP last month launched legal action against broadcaster TRT for failing to screen its campaign videoldquoUnfortunately the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation has moved away from being an impartial and objective institution and has turned into the Tayyip Radio and Television Corporationrdquo CHP lawmaker Tuncay Ozkan saidAlso readWatchdog growingly worried over Ukrainian nuclear plant securityThe remaining independent media also face increasing restrictions Last month broadcasting authority RTUK fined independent channels Fox News Halk TV and TELE1 over news and commentary deemed a breach of regulationsIlhan Tasci an oppositionappointed RTUK member said in all three cases the stations had been accused of criticising or questioning rulingparty actionsIn a statement following the last presidential and general elections in 2018 observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe noted that Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party AKP enjoyed ldquoan undue advantage including in excessive coverage by governmentaffiliated public and private media outletsrdquoThe governments reach has also been extended over social media where many opposition voices have retreatedA ldquodisinformationrdquo law introduced in October allows a jail sentence of up to three years for spreading false information ldquowith the sole aim of creating anxiety fear or panic among the publicrdquoSinan Aygul the only journalist to be prosecuted under the new law was handed a 10month prison term in February He is currently free while appealing the caseldquoThe real aim is to silence all dissident voices in societyrdquo said Aygul chair of the journalists association in Bitlis southeastern TurkiyeIt is ldquoa law that targets anyone who expresses an opinion It targets not only individuals but also media organsrdquo he saidThe illdefined law creates crimes from ldquobasic journalistic activitiesrdquo Aygul said adding that it could be used during the elections to target groups seeking to protect ballot box security who use social media to highlight abusesldquoIf there is going to be fraud in the election all opposition channels will be silenced by using this lawrdquo he saidThe imposition of a state of emergency over the 11 provinces hit by Februarys earthquake has also raised concerns about how the polls will be conducted in the regionA UN report published April 11 said at least 3 million people had relocated from their homes in the quake zone many of them heading to other parts of TurkiyeHowever just 133000 people from the earthquake region have registered to vote outside their home provinces the head of the Supreme Election Council said last month Ahmet Yener added that election officials are overseeing preparations including polling stations at temporary sheltersIn 2018 a nationwide state of emergency imposed following a 2016 coup attempt was in place until shortly before the election which the OSCE said restricted the media and freedoms of assembly and expressionErdogan has stepped up his public appearances which are closely followed by most TV channels and uses these official duties to attack his rivalsAttending a ceremony on the Friday of Eid alFitr last month to mark renovations to Istanbuls Blue Mosque he accused the opposition of ldquoworking with terrorist groupsrdquoThe previous evening the leaders of four political parties allied to the AKP were present for an event to launch the delivery of Black Sea natural gas despite none holding any government positionOther large projects that were rolled out ahead of the vote include Turkiyes first nuclear power reactor built by Rosatom the Russian state nuclear energy company and several defence developmentsCritics also point to the bending of election law to allow government ministers to stand as parliamentary candidates while remaining in office despite legal requirements to the contraryThe election board meanwhile has previously faced criticism for siding with AKP objections during electionsIn the 2019 local polls the victorious opposition mayoral candidate for Istanbul was forced to face a rerun following AKP complaints of ballot irregularities Results from district and city council votes which were collected in the same boxes and favored the AKP were not questionedAdem Sozuer of Istanbul Universitys law faculty told the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper that voters had lost confidence in the election authoritiesldquoThere is widespread suspicion in a significant part of society that elections will be riggedrdquo he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever