Major concern over election security in Türkiye

Anadolu Agency (AA), a state-run news agency headquartered in Ankara, created public distrust as a result of disinformation created by discontinuing its live data stream of election results for hours during the 2018 general elections and 2019 local elections. Therefore, in the run-up to the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14, the reliability of Anadolu Agency’s data, which will share the results of the polls on the evening of the elections, has become a subject of debate. There are also concerns about the independence of the Supreme Election Board (YSK), which is responsible for the overall management and supervision of elections in Türkiye, including judicial review.

The lack of election experience due to the new formation of the YSK board also increased the debates on election security. In addition to the debate on the inexperience of the new YSK board members elected in January 2023, there were also allegations that they had an affinity with the AKP. Another reason for the distrust towards the YSK was the rejection of the appeal petition, which was based on the allegations that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan could not be a candidate for the third time and that his diploma was forged.

CHP leader and presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu also said in an interview that his party had no confidence in the YSK and the AA. Stating that they’d been working on election security for 1.5 years, Kilicdaroglu added that it was the first time in the country’s history that such extensive and secure measures had been taken.

Anadolu Agency has been criticized for its practices in previous elections. In the 2019 local elections, AA stated, “There is no data flow from the field to the Election Broadcasting System. The broadcast of the results will continue when the data from the field or from the YSK arrives”. However, contrary to the claim of AA, the YSK announced that the data flow was proceeding. Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul, had won the elections while AA’s data flow was suspended.

Anadolu Agency, which will be transmitting data from the ballot boxes on election night, issued a statement on the insecurity, saying: “If there is the slightest disruption in the service we provide, the recipients of the service should report us to the Public Prosecutor’s Office”. However, the opposition parties are determined not to relinquish their grip on control.