Since the opening of the polling stations at 7.00 a.m. local time in the morning, the international delegations have also started their work of observing the elections. At the moment, 403 OSCE observers are in Turkey. In Northern Kurdistan, however, civil society is also observing the elections. There are independent election observation delegations consisting of 175 parliamentarians, party representatives, civil society representatives, lawyers, academics, scientists, journalists and activists who will document violations.

International Election Observation is a joint task of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

The observer's mission has a total of 403 observers, of which 264 are experts, short-term and long-term observers appointed by ODIHR.

101 were appointed by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and 38 by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Devriş Çimen, the European representative of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), warned that: "Due to the atmosphere in the run-up to the elections, a fair, free and democratic election can hardly be expected. Erdoğan has control over the judiciary, the media and all political institutions of the state and used them in the election campaign. Looking back at the 21 years of [AKP] government, everyone sees that an authoritarian regime has been created." In light of this, various international organisations have sent official and independent observation missions.

Çimen highlighted the likelihood of massive attacks on the elections by the government and, in light of this, underlined the importance of the election observation delegations: "They will be observing and reporting on the ground because they know that, on the one hand, change is possible through elections, but that, on the other hand, in order to prevent this, all possible forms of fraud, repression and manipulation will be used."

The HDP plays a key role in politics in Turkey, said Çimen, who sees this as the cause of the massive repression against the party: "It is known that Erdoğan is trying to prevent [the HDP] from taking this role with the help of systematic repression, arbitrary and political trials, the imprisonment of thousands of members [of the HDP] and the closure process that has been taking place since 2021. It is known that Erdoğan has operated this as a comprehensive electoral fraud and has put pressure on the judiciary accordingly. Since it is known that the HDP received high shares of votes in the past elections and that this time even more votes will go to the Green Left Party, it can be assumed that anti-democratic practices and methods will be used in the Kurdish provinces, as in past elections. In this respect, the security of the elections is too important to be left solely to institutions under the control of the Erdoğan regime."

Çimen reported that the independent election observation delegations in Northern Kurdistan consist of 175 participants. They come from France, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. The delegations will be deployed in Northern Kurdistan in Diyarbakır, Bingöl, Muş, Urfa, Mardin, Siirt, Şırnaka, Hakkari, Ağrı, Kars, Ardahan and Malatya,but also in Istanbul. Çimen continued: "The delegation consists of 175 parliamentarians and representatives of left, socialist, green and social democratic parties, representatives of trade unions and civil society organisations, lawyers, scientists, academics, journalists and activists who will be on the ground in the Kurdish provinces for observation.”

Çimen explained that the HDP Europe Office is in contact with the election observation delegations and pointed out that the information from the delegations will be fed into the liveblog on the page of HDP Europe. The hashtag #ObservingTurkey is used for this.

LIVE TICKER: Turkey at a turning point? Election observation, obstacles and developments | HDP Europe.