PES President Sergei Stanishev said:
“There are no reasons to challenge these elections. 16 million Istanbul citizens have already made their choice by electing Ekrem Imamoglu as their mayor. The results of the opposition parties were due to the mobilisation of the Turkish people in their favour and against the increasing authoritarianism of the governing party. If there was any bias in the climate of these elections, it certainly has been against the interests of the opposition, because of the lack of free public debate. These circumstances don’t invalidate this result, they strengthen its credibility.
“We call on the Turkish government to refrain from any political pressure on judges. The government must recognise the results the High Election Board has already announced, rather than looking for ways to distort the results, which are clear for the international community.”
