Election security in Turkey

Description

Electoral integrity is a crucial element of securing trust in democratic institutions, elected and appointed. However, the malpractices or manipulations of the voting act and vote choice are becoming common in order to stabilise and secure the hegemony of majority in hybrid regimes, thus delegitimising the core principle of democracy, the right to vote freely and fairly. Even though electoral irregularities have been a common issue since 1946, the recent disputes about election processes – including false registry, government intimidation, recounting of votes and the re-run of elections – have deteriorated the legitimacy of the credible election management in Turkey. This study aims to explain the sources of violations of election security during the last presidential and parliamentary elections in 2018 and the local administration elections in 2019 on concrete evidence collected by non-governmental organisations.

Ömer Faruk Gençkaya is Professor for Political Science and Public Policy at Marmara University in Istanbul. He researches and publishes mainly on political finance, anti-corruption and legislatures.

Pınar Dikmen holds an MA degree in law and is a doctoral candidate at Marmara University in the field of constitutional jurisdiction. She has served in various constitutional law and human rights centres in France, including the Sorbonne as visiting researcher.