OSCE Election Observation Mission 'cooperating extensively' with Turkish authorities, says official

ANKARA

A team from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) which is currently in Türkiye to observe the May 14 elections is in close contact with Turkish authorities, according to an official.

"I'm not going to go into any details of how we do these things. ... but of course, we are cooperating extensively with authorities, with parties, with civil society, with the media. We are discussing with a lot of people, learning a lot. So, I can say that we are really gaining knowledge every day," Jan Petersen, the head of OSCE Election Observation Mission, told Anadolu in an exclusive interview in the capital Ankara.

Following an invitation from Turkish authorities, the OSCE deployed a team of experts and observers across Türkiye since early April.

"We have been here for a month already. We have a core team in Ankara, 14 experts. We have 28, so-called long-term observers deployed throughout the country to report back to us everything they see in their area of observation," said Petersen, adding they will be joined by more than 100 more observers, close to Election Day.

The mission will assess the elections for compliance with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards, as well as Turkish legislation.

"Then the question is, of course, why do we arrive so early and that is because there are so many elements important to the election, like your election law, the legal framework, financing, the media situation, campaigning, administration of the elections, registration voters and candidates, and so on. So many factors. That is why we need all this time," said Petersen.

He said long-term observers will have to be in the field for a very long time until after the elections. "If there are two rounds, they got to stay for another couple of weeks," he said.

Türkiye will choose 600 members of parliament and a president on May 14. The election board set May 28 for a possible runoff if no presidential candidate can secure a majority in the first round.

Observers are 'absolutely neutral, have no second agenda'

Underlying that there are codes of conduct for all observers, Petersen said: "It is important to stress that because we are just observers -- absolutely neutral, have no second agenda -- but observing and assessing whether the elections are according to the international standards with this country, like any other OSCE country has entered into."

He said they have observed more than 430 different elections since the 1990s and gained a lot of experience that formed the basis of their methodology.

"I think that the methodology is the gold standard of elections observations," he said.

Petersen said that after Election Day, they will be able to give an assessment that "might be useful" to Türkiye.

The day after the elections, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), together with its parliamentary partners, will hold a news conference where they will issue a statement on preliminary findings and conclusions.

A final report on the observation of the entire electoral process will be released approximately two to three months after the end of the election process.

ODIHR has previously had seven election-related activities in Türkiye since 2002, most recently for the 2018 early presidential and parliamentary elections, according to the OSCE.