Last week I was in Ankara monitoring the local government elections in Turkey. I led a 22 strong team made up of representatives from 20 of the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe is the body that safeguards human rights, democracy and the rule of law throughout the Continent of Europe. If you are as old as me you'll remember the Helsinki Accords from the 1970s - made during the height of the Cold War and under the auspices of the Council of Europe. These accords gave hope to people living in countries under Soviet oppression.
[NB - The Council of Europe is NOT the EU - and Britain will remain a member of it even after we leave the EU. The Council of Europe was Churchill's idea after WWII. There are 49 European Countries - and 47 of them are members of the Council of Europe - the only two that are not members are Belarus and the Vatican.]
![]()
As part of the observation mission we spoke with local politicians, journalists, election officials and government officials. We also watched the votes being cast in several polling stations and some of the counting afterwards. Throughout we were considering whether the elections were 'free and fair.'
Turkey has a longer tradition of democracy than many perhaps realise. Some democratic reforms predate the founding of the modern Turkish state - to the days of the Ottoman Empire.
In terms of the voting system we could learn much from the Turks. Every voter has to produce identification and sign the voters list once they have voted. Their system is bureaucratic - with voters having to put their ballot papers (there were 4 elections run simultaneously) in an envelope before placing the envelope in the ballot box.
All ballot boxes were opened and counted at the end of voting and counted by the staff who had administered the voting. I estimated that at least 750k people were involved in administering the voting for the 57 million voters country-wide.
So whilst the mechanics of voting were largely sound and conducted competently- we had to express serious reservations about the wider political climate in Turkey.
Some of those serious reservations included:
Prior to these elections nearly 100 elected Mayors have been removed from office and replaced by government trustees allegedly for corruption or for being terrorists or being associated with terrorists.
I had to present these findings to the world's media last Monday. Here is a link to the official
Press Conference and here is a link to the specific Preliminary Observations.
![]()
I also raised gender equality issues too.
You can click the link: photo montage to have a flavour of the observations.
Given the challenges being made to the voting principally in Ankara and Istanbul the Council of Europe remains very interested in how matters play out.
[NB - The Council of Europe is NOT the EU - and Britain will remain a member of it even after we leave the EU. The Council of Europe was Churchill's idea after WWII. There are 49 European Countries - and 47 of them are members of the Council of Europe - the only two that are not members are Belarus and the Vatican.]
As part of the observation mission we spoke with local politicians, journalists, election officials and government officials. We also watched the votes being cast in several polling stations and some of the counting afterwards. Throughout we were considering whether the elections were 'free and fair.'
Turkey has a longer tradition of democracy than many perhaps realise. Some democratic reforms predate the founding of the modern Turkish state - to the days of the Ottoman Empire.
In terms of the voting system we could learn much from the Turks. Every voter has to produce identification and sign the voters list once they have voted. Their system is bureaucratic - with voters having to put their ballot papers (there were 4 elections run simultaneously) in an envelope before placing the envelope in the ballot box.
All ballot boxes were opened and counted at the end of voting and counted by the staff who had administered the voting. I estimated that at least 750k people were involved in administering the voting for the 57 million voters country-wide.
So whilst the mechanics of voting were largely sound and conducted competently- we had to express serious reservations about the wider political climate in Turkey.
Some of those serious reservations included:
- the use of state resources in ways that favour one political party over another;
- the lack of effective regulation of the media including TV, radio and newspapers allowing wall to wall coverage of one political party whilst largely ignoring the others; and
- a very wide definition of terrorism.
Prior to these elections nearly 100 elected Mayors have been removed from office and replaced by government trustees allegedly for corruption or for being terrorists or being associated with terrorists.
I had to present these findings to the world's media last Monday. Here is a link to the official
Press Conference and here is a link to the specific Preliminary Observations.
I also raised gender equality issues too.
You can click the link: photo montage to have a flavour of the observations.
Given the challenges being made to the voting principally in Ankara and Istanbul the Council of Europe remains very interested in how matters play out.