ODIHR opens observation mission for early presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey
ANKARA, 24 May 2018 – The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today formally opened an election observation mission for the 24 June early presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey. The mission’s deployment follows an invitation from the Turkish authorities.
The mission is led by Ambassador Audrey Glover and consists of a core team of 12 experts based in Ankara and 22 long-term observers to be deployed across the country.
The mission will observe these elections for their compliance with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections, as well as with domestic legislation. Observers will follow candidate registration, campaign activities of the presidential and parliamentary contestants, the work of the election administration and relevant state bodies, implementation of the legislative framework and the resolution of election disputes. As part of the observation, the mission will conduct comprehensive monitoring of the media.
In the course of its observation, the mission will meet with representatives from state authorities, political parties and candidates, and with representatives from civil society, the media and the international community. On election day, observers will monitor the opening of polling stations, voting, the counting of ballots and the tabulation of results.
The day after the elections, the mission will join with observer delegations from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to issue a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions at a press conference. ODIHR will issue its final report on the observation of the entire electoral process approximately eight weeks after the end of the observation mission.
For further information, please contact Kira Kalinina, Media Analyst with the election observation mission, at +90 312 457 6126(Ankara office) or +90 537 2362273(Ankara mobile) or at kira.kalinina@odihr-turkey.org.
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Thomas Rymer, OSCE/ODIHR Spokesperson, at +48 609 522 266 (Warsaw mobile) or at thomas.rymer@odihr.pl.