OSCE notes concerns over president's 'active campaign' ahead of June vote

In the run-up to the June 7 parliamentary elections, the top European security body has highlighted concerns in Turkey over incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an?s ?active role in the campaign,? as they have recommended the deployment of a team in order to observe the election.

?The election campaign started on March 10 and is expected to be dynamic and potentially hard fought, due to the continued polarization between the governing party and opposition parties,? said a Needs Assessment Mission (NAM) report by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

?OSCE/ODIHR NAM interlocutors anticipate the campaign to focus on economic issues, human rights, corruption investigations, the Kurdish-Turkish peace process as well as the question of constitutional reform towards a more presidential system. Many OSCE/ODIHR NAM interlocutors raised concerns over a potential misuse of state administrative resources and the president?s active role in the campaign,? said the report, which was the product of a visit to Turkey from April 14 to April 17.

?In addition, some concerns were noted regarding the freedom of assembly and the possibility to campaign freely in several provinces due to heightened security-related issues,? it said.
The OSCE was not the first international organization to take notice of concerns in Turkey over conduct of a fair and safe election on June 7.

Luis Ayala, the secretary-general of Socialist International (SI), visited Turkey in March in order to show solidarity with the main opposition social democratic Republican People?s Party (CHP) in the face of a media campaign by pro-government papers. He said he would ask all members of...