Turkey’s General Election in 2023 and Ballot Boxes Security Issue under one-man regime of Erdoğan

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Ballot boxes security is the most important part of an election anywhere in the world. Especially, in countries which are under one-man regime, ballot boxes security can turn into a vital issue for the democratic institutions.

Turkey’s general elections are going to be held on 14th of May, 2023. A dramatic change is imminent in Turkey’s politics no matter which side wins the election.

On the one hand, if Erdoğan become victorious in the election Turkey will continue to move away from democratic regimes and will be more close to one-man regimes like Putin’s Russia, İlham Aliyev’s Azerbaijan and Xi Jinping’s China. On the other hand, secular characteristics of the state may completely be abandoned and Turkey may gradually turn into a conservative Islamic state which will not be better than Iran.

Hopefully, there will be another chance! The opposition parties may achieve to give an decisive end to Erdoğan’s authoritarian one-man regime. In this case, Turkey will try to normalize quickly. Luckily the opposition has a better chance to win the election. In fact, Erdoğan has no chance in a democratically held election. However, the political atmosphere in Turkey is far away from democracy. Erdoğan controls almost %90 of media and all government agencies plus security forces. And this is why ballot boxes security is an important issue in the 2023 general election.

Ballot Boxes Security Issue in the 2023 General Election

There are many steps to secure ballot boxes so as to prevent Erdoğan regime from any possible election fraud.

The security of ballot boxes in foreign countries

Each adult (+18 years old) citizen of Turkey has a right to vote freely. The citizens living abroad vote in certain places like embassies in the respective country. As embassies and other government agencies are directly under control of Erdoğan’s one-man regime, the security of ballot boxes in foreign countries poses a real threat to the security of the general election in Turkey.

Erdoğan’s Media, Anadolu Agency and Fake Election Results

Anadolu Agency is one of the main source to inform all the citizens about the election results. However, since Anadolu Agency is also a government agency, its statistics and data cannot be reliable for oppositon parties. During 2019 local elections and even during other past elections, Anadolu Agency attempted to represent election results in a way that suggested decisive victory for Erdoğan. For example, the agency would start to represent Erdoğan’s votes around %75 and his rival around %25. As a result, many people who are responsible for the security of ballot boxes would think that Erdoğan is the winner so there is no more need to protect the ballot boxes. After that, once the represantatives of opposition parties leave ballot boxes, the represantatives of Erdoğan’s party would change the results of ballot boxes in favor of Erdoğan.

So, the manipulations and fake news by Erdoğan’s media are also serious challenges for the security of ballot boxes.

Kurdish-Inhabited Rural Area

Security forces are completely under command of Erdoğan regime. Therefore, Erdoğan and his allies may attempt to indecently utilize security forces for their own interests. Especially in Kurdish-inhabited areas it is not easy for people to prevent security forces from attempting fraud in ballot boxes.