Monday 29 May 2023 – 17:26
The Council of Europe said in a statement, Monday, that the second round of the presidential elections in Turkey, in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won on Sunday, was marked by “increasingly inflammatory language” and “restrictions” on freedom of expression.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which is a member with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the election observation mission, stated that the poll was “marked by increasingly inflammatory and discriminatory language during the campaign period.”
On the other hand, “media bias and constant restrictions on freedom of expression” also led to “creating unequal competitive conditions that contributed to an unjustified advantage” for Erdogan, despite the fact that the poll “went smoothly and allowed voters to choose between real political options,” according to him. Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
The statement quoted German MP Frank Schwab, a member of the association’s mission to monitor voting operations, as saying, “The second round of the presidential elections clearly determined the winner.”
“However, this second round also took place in an environment that, in many ways, does not provide the conditions for democratic elections,” Schwab added.
He called on Ankara to “implement the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, especially the release of Osman Kavala and Salah al-Din Demirtas,” opponents of Erdogan who are now in prison.
The observation mission for the second round of the presidential elections in Turkey has deployed 232 observers from 31 countries, according to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.