May 15, 2018
Daily Sabah
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is the chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), called on all sides to respect the final results of the elections.
Speaking Monday in a televised interview on the BBC, President Erdoğan said that the elections in Turkey are transparent.
“There are ballot boxes in Turkey; the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) comes [during the elections], and we invite foreign countries as well; people cast their ballots in their presence,” he said, stressing the rule of law in Turkey.
Erdoğan added that regardless of the winners of the elections, the results should be respected.
Commenting on his party’s efforts for the upcoming elections, he said that he would work along with his team to win the elections to further develop the country.
“Our objective is to make Turkey one of the 10 biggest economies in the world,” he said.
Turkey will head to the polls on June 24 for presidential and parliamentary elections as part of an agreement between Erdoğan and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli.
In relation to the issue of election security, Supreme Election Council (YSK) President Sadi Güven previously stressed that all necessary measures are being taken, saying, “Elections are secured; there is no duplicate voting, and there are no fake election ballots.”
The general elections in 2015 were also observed by the OSCE and the Council of Europe, which produced a joint report that said, “Turkey’s well-managed, democratic elections demonstrated pluralism.”
As the AK Party and the MHP formed an alliance supporting Erdoğan’s bid to serve for another term, Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Muharrem İnce and pro-PKK Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş were nominated as presidential candidates by their respective parliamentary groups.
Felicity Party (SP) leader Temel Karamollaoğlu, Good Party (İP) Chairwoman Meral Akşener, and the Patriotic Party’s (VP) Doğu Perinçek all collected more than 100,000 signatures to run for president.
While political parties ramped up their efforts for the upcoming elections, research companies have been revealing the latest surveys to give a clue about the possible results.
ANDY-AR Research Company General Manager Faruk Acar recently said that he expects Erdoğan to obtain 55 percent of the votes in the first round with no need for a second round.
Meanwhile, the places of the presidential candidates on the ballots were determined in a draw on Monday by the YSK. Accordingly, the candidates will be placed as follows: 1. Muharrem İnce, 2. Meral Akşener, 3. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 4. Selahattin Demirtaş, 5. Temel Karamollaoğlu and 6. Doğu Perinçek.
Source:https://www.dailysabah.com/elections/2018/05/15/all-need-to-respect-election-results-says-erdogan
