Erdogan’s presidential rivals fight for airtime
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is accused of employing unfair advantages in his election campaign.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to win the presidential elections on Aug. 10 and become Turkey’s first directly elected president. But will he assume the presidency after an election campaign that was conducted fairly and on equal terms for all the candidates?
His rivals do not believe this to be the case. They accuse Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government of using its powers to withhold equal time, denying them opportunity while promoting Erdogan.
The Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) — one of whose tasks is to monitor elections in member states — agrees with this. An interim report by the OSCE office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) covering the period July 9-28 has found two serious problems in this regard.
It says the “campaign activities of the Prime Minister are large-scale events, often combined with official government events,” and underlines that the public visibility of the other candidates has been kept limited.
