Ankara says remarks made in a report on Sunday\u2019s polls by European observers are \u2018politically charged and accusatory\u2019
\n Ankara
\nTurkey\u2019s foreign ministry has slammed the \u201clack of transparency\u201d statements made by an international observer mission monitoring Sunday\u2019s elections in the country.
\nThe statements were issued at a news conference in the capital Ankara on Monday by a joint observation mission from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
\n\u201cI regret to note that the election administration\u2019s work was lacking in transparency, as well as the overwhelming bias of the public media and the limitations to freedom of speech,\u201d Ambassador Jan Petersen, head of the ODIHR election observation mission, said.
\n\u201cThe process for handling complaints at all levels of the election administration lacked transparency and the Supreme Electoral Council decisions that were published generally were not sufficiently reasoned,\u201d the report said.
\nOn Wednesday, the Turkish foreign ministry called the remarks \u201cpolitically charged and accusatory\u201d.
\n\u201cStatements in the report go beyond the election process and are incompatible with the principles of independent and impartial observation,\u201d the ministry said.
\n\u201cIt should not be forgotten that political analysis and biased comments will damage the credibility of OSCE election observation missions.\u201d
\nIn addition to the lack of transparency comment, the observers said biased state-media coverage of the polls was a concern.
\nThe OSCE delegation said that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s political party and its allies enjoyed an advantage over the opposition parties who had faced unequal conditions for campaigning.
\nPetersen said the general elections were \u201cmostly peaceful\u201d despite a number of incidents and the country\u2019s High Election Board (YSK) had worked efficiently.
\nThe delegation also praised the high turnout, stating that it was a clear indicator of a \u201cstrong democratic spirit\u201d.
\nThe YSK confirmed a May 28 run-off between Erdogan and rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu, after neither candidate secured the 50-percent threshold needed to win in the presidential contest.
\nErdogan bagged 49.5 percent of the votes ahead of Kilicdaroglu\u2019s 44.96 percent.
\nIn the parliamentary vote, the Cumhur \u0130ttifak\u0131 (People\u2019s Alliance), including Erdogan\u2019s Adalet ve Kalk\u0131nma Party (Justice and Development Party), achieved a parliamentary majority, according to unofficial results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ankara says remarks made in a report on Sunday\u2019s polls by European observers are \u2018politically charged and accusatory\u2019 Ankara Turkey\u2019s foreign ministry has slammed the \u201clack of transparency\u201d statements made by an international observer mission monitoring Sunday\u2019s elections in the country. The statements were issued at a news conference in the capital Ankara on Monday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-331869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n