TURKEY-ELECTION/MONITORS Turkish volunteers flock to monitor knife-edge election

Record ID: 150316

  • Title: TURKEY-ELECTION/MONITORS Turkish volunteers flock to monitor knife-edge election
  • Date: 5th June 2015
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JUNE 4, 2015) (MUTE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF COMPUTER SCREEN SWHWEB PAGE OF 'VOTE AND BEYOND' VIDEO OF 'VOTE AND BEYOND' ON THEIR WEBPAGE
  • Embargoed: 20th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAPX0RUQU1H889DKDUCTLJ0NXE
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: In a park at Istanbul's Besiktas district, some 200 people listen as a young lawyer explains what to watch for when votes are counted in Sunday's pivotal parliamentary election.
    Tens of thousands of volunteers have signed up to monitor the vote, set to be the closest in more than a decade.
    Organisers say the campaign is a response to an erosion in the rule of law.
    Oy Ve Otesi ("Vote and Beyond") was set up the aftermath of anti-government demonstrations two years ago.
    In last year's presidential election, it was able to monitor six cities.
    This time, it is targeting 70,000 volunteers in 162 towns.
    Sercan Celebi, who quit management consultancy McKinsey to run the movement, said it was driven by diminishing trust in Turkey's institutions and inspired by the 2013 mass protests that began over government plans to build on an Istanbul park.
    "Security and transparency on the election day has always been seen as a problem by my generation. This has been talked about a lot especially during the recent elections. And we decided to get organised and work on our perspective instead of complaining," Celebi told Reuters.
    He explained how they will monitor the polls.
    "They (monitors) will do their job in two categories. First one will be a visible duty: monitoring the ballot box and the second will be an invisible duty: monitoring the merging process of the votes. 'Vote and Beyond' will get the results of 174,000 ballot boxes with its own software and compare those results to official results," he said.
    President Tayyip Erdogan has tightened his grip on the judiciary, police and media in recent years.
    Dozens of critical journalists have faced prosecution, while citizens including a high school student have been taken to court for insulting him on social media.
    Turkey nonetheless has a history of broadly credible elections, with the ruling AK Party (AKP) strengthening its majority in three successive votes since 2002.
    Erdogan wants the AKP to win enough of a majority to change the constitution and hand him executive powers. For that, the AKP would need to win three-fifths of parliament's 550 seats.
    The pro-Kurdish HDP could thwart those plans if it crosses the 10 percent threshold needed to enter parliament, potentially even forcing the AKP into coalition.
    Polls suggest it will go down to the wire and the volunteers of Oy Ve Otesi say this has fuelled fears of fraud.
    Allegations of electoral irregularities surfaced last year, when observers said some districts in Ankara recorded a turnout of over 100 percent in a March municipal vote.
    Energy Minister Taner Yildiz blamed a cat in a power station for electricity outages at some voting centres, drawing ridicule on social media, although no link to fraud has been established.
    A study published in May by Professor Ali Carkoglu of Koc University in Istanbul found 43 percent of potential voters thought the June 7 election would not be fair.
    "I need to see with my own eyes whether things are going right or wrong. Therefore I wanted to join when a platform in which I can take an effective role was established," said volunteer observer Ezgi Ozcelik.
    "We all hear, we all know and we all perceive (what is going on). We know that these kind of people have always caused problems in Turkey and committed fraud. We are here to prevent this," said volunteer Bedri Deren.
    Oy Ve Otesi says two-thirds of its volunteers are women and an equal proportion are between 26 and 45 years.
    Celebi said the group would cover 45 Turkish provinces and would be "fairly strongly" represented in the southeast.
    Oy Ve Otesi says 75 percent of its funding comes from small donations and that it gets some help from the Swedish and Dutch consulates.
    Though many of the volunteers oppose the AKP, they are told to leave their political opinions at the door when they monitor the vote and insist their movement is non-partisan.
    Electoral laws only provide for representatives of political parties and independent candidates to monitor the vote, meaning that Oy Ve Otesi is dependent on parties for access.
    Celebi said the group was working with five opposition parties but that the AKP had declined, arguing that it supported democratic initiatives but had its own monitoring procedures.
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