Turkish Opposition Calls on Its Citizens Not to Heed Government Media Broadcasts

Selahattin Demirtaş

Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtaş urged the Turkish people not to believe the data appearing on the official Anadolu Agency regarding the results of the vote count. Demirtaş, who led the Democratic Peoples' Party and has been imprisoned for seven years, said that the electoral data of the government agency has been increasingly politicized under the rule of the Justice and Development Party led by President Ragab Tayyip Erdogan. He called on his fellow citizens to remember the municipal elections in Istanbul four years ago when the agency broadcasted that Binali Yıldırım, Erdogan's candidate, won the mayoral election, while the actual winner was Ekrem İmamoğlu.

Demirtaş stressed that Anadolu has become a media platform under the control of the Justice and Development Party, and that the data it publishes on election nights mostly comes from officials of the ruling party, serving their interests.

On the other hand, Faik Öztrak, the spokesperson for the Republican People's Party, accused the official Turkish news agency of manipulating the Turkish election results and downplayed the importance of the initial results indicating Erdogan's lead over opposition leader Kamal Kılıçdaroğlu. He added, "We are closely monitoring the results; Anadolu is conducting its traditional manipulations."

Öztrak continued: “Thank you to the volunteers who have made a tremendous effort in monitoring the ballot boxes and will continue to provide us with results quickly according to the data that has reached us. At this time, we see the table very positively. We ask our citizens to follow the results. When the number of opened ballot boxes reaches a meaningful level, we will begin to issue sequential data."

According to government-loyal networks, after 80% of the votes have been counted, the Turkish president is leading with 50.3%, followed by Kamal Kılıçdaroğlu with 43.9%.