The Higher Electoral Council (YSK) of Turkey showed a lack of transparency in the way it managed yesterday’s presidential and parliamentary elections and biased state media coverage is a cause for concern, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) observers said today.

Delegation of the OSCE reported that the outgoing Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey’s co-ruling parties enjoyed an unfair advantage over opposition parties that faced unequal conditions in the election campaign.

These findings were made public today at a press conference held today by the joint observer mission established by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

“I note with regret that the work of the electoral authority lacked transparency, as well as the very high bias of the state media and restrictions on freedom of speech,” Jan Petersen, head of the election observation mission, told a press conference in Ankara. of the ODIHR.

He stressed that the general elections were held “largely peacefully”, although there were some incidents, while saying that the YSK functioned effectively. The delegation also praised the high turnout in the elections, saying it was a clear indication of a “strong democratic spirit”.

“The process of handling complaints at all levels of the electoral authority lacked transparency and published decisions of the Higher Electoral Council were mostly not sufficiently reasoned,” the report said. International Election Monitoring Mission.

The YSK confirmed at noon today that there will be a runoff in Turkey’s presidential election on May 28 between Erdogan and Kemal Kilicdaroglu, after neither of those candidates crossed the 50 percent threshold to win the presidency. With 99% of the votes counted, Erdogan garnered 49.4% of the vote to Kilicdaroglu’s 44.96%.

In the parliamentary elections, People’s Alliancewhich includes Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), appears to be on course to secure a majority.

“Turkish democracy is proving admirably resilient. These elections saw a high turnout and offered a real choice. However, Turkey does not meet the basic principles for holding democratic elections,” said Frank Schwabe, the head of the KSSE delegation.

He called on the Turkish government to guarantee press freedom, noting that Turkish state television’s favorable coverage of Erdogan and the ruling parties amounts to censorship.

The mission, which deployed 401 observers from 40 countries across Turkey, also highlighted that members of the pro-Kurdish Green Left Party (YSP) faced widespread incidents of intimidation. The mission did not specify who was responsible for these incidents. Some opposition politicians are subject to restrictions, the mission added, without elaborating.

The delegation called on the Turkish authorities to take concrete measures to guarantee higher voter turnout in cities hit by the deadly earthquake in the southeast Turkey on February.

The OSCE mission noted that it will pay special attention to the second round of presidential elections on May 28.

Farah Karimi, head of the OSCE PA delegation, said that the Turkish authorities’ refusal to grant accreditation to Danish MP Søren Sødergaard and Swedish MP Kadir Kasirga that they were to go to Turkey as election observers was an “unfortunate decision”.