Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States makes statement on 25th Parliamentary Elections of the Republic of Turkey

Baku, June 9 AZERTAC Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States made a statement on 25th Parliamentary Elections of the Republic of Turkey. The statement says: “Upon the invitation of the Supreme Electoral Council of the Republic of Turkey, the Election Observation International Mission of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (hereinafter referred to as the Mission), headed by Ambassador Ramil Hasanov, Secretary General of the Turkic Council monitored the 25th Parliamentary Elections of the Republic of Turkey (hereinafter referred to as the election) held on 7 June 2015. Before the start of the Mission, Ambassador Ramil Hasanov visited Sadi Güven, President of the Supreme Electoral Board of the Republic of Turkey on 3 June 2015 at the latter’s office in Ankara to brief him with regard to the composition and activities of the Mission. Mission comprising 16 officials from the Secretariat of the Turkic Council, International Turkic Academy and representatives of the Member States- the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic started observing the election on 5 June 2015. The Mission was divided into four teams that monitored the election in the city of Istanbul, Izmir, Trabzon and Van, respectively. Mission carried out its activities in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Turkey, as well as generally recognized rules of international law on the organization and conduct of elections, without interfering the electoral process and the sovereignty of the state. In the framework of observing the pre-election process, members of the Istanbul team including Mr. Kaundyk Turgankulov, Head of the Central Election Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Mr. Abzal Saparbekuly Deputy Secretary General of the Turkic Council met the officials from Istanbul Provincial Directorates of Felicity Party, People’s Democratic Party, Republican’s People Party, Nationalist Movement Party and Justice and Development Party. Furthermore, the team was received by the President of Istanbul Provincial Election Council Ms. Hayriye Gül. Ms. Hayriye Gül informed the delegation of election law and electoral system of the Republic of Turkey as well as distribution of polling stations in the cities and the procedure to be applied during the Election Day. In addition to Istanbul, the Mission conducted its activities concurrently in the cities of Van, Izmir and Trabzon. The teams headed by Project Directors of the Turkic Council also monitored the pre-election process and the Election Day in the abovementioned cities. Meanwhile, they visited the officials of the Provincial Election Councils in each abovementioned city and received information on the pre-election process from the said officials. On the Election Day, the teams started to visit polling stations from 8.00 a.m. until the end of the election process. After the end of the voting process, the delegations also monitered the vote counting process in different ballot boxes. In this regard, in general, the Turkic Council Observation International Mission visited 57 polling stations in Istanbul, 19 polling stations in Izmir, 12 polling stations in Trabzon and 18 polling stations in Van whereas they attended the vote counting sessions at several polling stations. Mission did not observe any violation of law during the pre-election process and Election Day. All legal and organizational conditions were provided for election observation in the Republic of Turkey. On the Election Day, tabulation of ballots and results were duly conducted in accordance with the national election legislation. Appropriate conditions were provided to the political parties and international observers for the sake of the impartiality of the elections. During the visit to the polling stations of the mentioned cities, the Mission did not find any evidence of intervention of administrative or law enforcement authorities in the work of local election commissions. On the other hand, the Istanbul team of the Mission met with the complaints from the voters regarding the complexity of the format of ballots. In conclusion, Observer Mission of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States affirms that the election was open, transparent and competitive, and complied with the national legislation of the Republic of Turkey and generally accepted international election standards.