How safe are elections held in Türkiye?

Türkiye is preparing for important municipal elections scheduled for Sunday, with the campaigning phase set to end on March 30, a day before the elections.

Voters across Türkiye will select mayors, district mayors, and local officials (mukhtars) in villages and neighbourhoods.

With 35 political parties participating in the elections, the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) has determined that the capacity of each polling station at the General Elections of Local Authorities will be 350 voters each.

This decision is based on the understanding that voters in a single polling station will participate in at least two types of elections.

We break down the complex process of ensuring free and fair elections in Türkiye.

Conducting elections

The YSK has put in place a system that ensures the integrity of the vote, starting from the polling booths.

At every polling station, a five-member board, which includes representatives of the YSK and dominant political parties, has been deputed. The board cross-checks the identification of the voters to see if their names are included in the electoral list. This eliminates the chances of one person casting a vote twice. It also helps build consensus between the parties on the result.

Political parties, including the governing Justice and Development (AK) Party and the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), will send out tens of thousands of observers to these polling stations.

Thousands of observers will follow the elections

Ahead of the elections, the parties recruit thousands of volunteers, especially for this purpose. These representatives have permission to accompany the ballot boxes.

Besides the party representatives and the YSK officials, non-government organisations have their volunteers to monitor the voting.

When the counting starts, volunteers of the political parties are present at the polling stations to oversee it. They can tally the votes, take pictures, and pass on the information to party higher-ups.

What makes the electoral process even more transparent is the presence of independent observers, including a 40-member team from the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), who have come at the invitation of the government.

The independence of the YSK was reaffirmed earlier this month, when it refused the government's request for ballot box location data, ahead of the elections. The opposition was not in favour of YSK sharing the location of the booths with the interior ministry at such a crucial juncture.

This goes on to show that the election authorities are working independently of political influence and governmental interference.

To avoid any confusion, only the official state-run Anadolu Agency is authorised to release the election results.