Elections in Turkey to be monitored by large European delegations

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will monitor the election processes in Turkey with one of the largest delegations ever assigned the task, Deutsche Welle (DW) Turkish reported.

The delegation will be headed by Frank Schwabe, Social Democratic Party (SPD) deputy in the German Bundestag and Commissioner for Global Freedom of Religion at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, DW said.

Schwabe announced on Twitter:

"I have the privilege of leading the Council of Europe's 40-strong election observation team at this important election in Turkey. Also Derya Turk-Nachbaur [SPD deputy and member of the Committee for Human Rights], Max Lucks [Green deputy] are part of the team."

He told DW:

"The Council of Europe monitors the elections in all countries under evaluation. This delegation will be one of the largest elections missions of the Council of Europe, and this stresses the importance of the coming elections in Turkey."

Noting that they will work in teams of two and that a total of 20 teams will be observing the processes on the election day, Schwabe said that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will send its own delegation and that the two delegations will work in close cooperation.

The two delegations will hold a joint press conference the day after the elections, he added.

Stating that they will observe not only the processes concerning the vote on 14 May but also the general situation surrounding the elections, Schwabe said:

"We will observe the situation in broad terms of democracy and rule of law, freedom of press, whether or not the opposition enjoy equal rights."

He continued:

"Turkey has to make sure, like all other countries, that the elections are held in a democratic environment. However, evaluation reports, reports by the Commissioner for Human Rights, and rulings by the European Court of Human Rights [ECHR] unfortunately suggest that there is no such environment in Turkey."

Schwabe said the closure case against the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the lawsuit against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu were outstanding indicators of the problems. He added that the continued incarceration of Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas and human rights defender Osman Kavala despite decisions by the ECHR ordering their immediate release were also practices in violation of laws.