The Presidential and Parliamentary elections, which will be held on May 14, are a critical turning point for Turkey in many respects. After the elections, regardless of the results, dramatic changes await us in the country's economic and political situation. Parties that are aware of the risks and spend all their energies on setting the agenda. While the AKP follows a political and economic populist election strategy, opposition parties are running a more constructive campaign targeting the votes of "median" voters.&nbsp;In all this turmoil, the parties are trying to implement other methods that can affect the election results as well as the struggle on the field. Chief among these is influencing the decisions of the YSK regarding the implementation of the election and the creation of ballots.For this purpose, the AKP representative of the YSK, Recep Özel, made an application to the YSK. In this application, he requested that the phrase Nation Alliance should not be included in the ballot papers on the grounds that the 4 political parties within the Special Nation Alliance did not submit a list of candidates, and the CHP and IYI Party did not submit a candidate list in some electoral circles, on the other hand, they did not submit an additional protocol to change the alliance protocol. In the application, he stated that with the removal of the Nation Alliance from the ballots, the calculation of the election threshold should be done separately for each political party. Evaluating the application, the YSK stated that "although the Democracy and Atılım Party, Democratic Party, Future Party and Felicity Party, which are all members of the Nation Alliance, have not nominated candidates in any electoral districts, the CHPand the İYİ Party, which are the other parties in the alliance, are in the provinces. The YSK &nbsp;rejected this application by a majority, saying, "The request that the Nation's Alliance continues and that the alliance protocol is invalid because the CHP and İYİ Party has nominated candidates for more than half of the total of electoral districts." YSK chairman Ahmet Yener and three other members voted "against" this decision.Although the YSK's rejection of the AKP representative's request to remove the phrase Nation Alliance from the ballot papers is positive in terms of establishing fair competition, the fact that four members voted for the acceptance of this obviously unfounded demand raises concerns about the decisions to be taken by the YSK, especially on the election day and after. Considering the decisions that the YSK has hindered the democratic process in the past months and especially in the 2019 local elections, considering the benefit of the AKP, we can say that the way to win this election is not only through the ballot boxes, but also through the decisions of the YSK. In this respect, the members of the YSK, who are supposed to be impartial, have a great responsibility in this election. *&nbsp;Ömer Faruk Şen – Ph.D. – Missouri University&nbsp;

The Freedom Observer

Considering the decisions that the YSK has hindered the democratic process in the past months and especially in the 2019 local elections, considering the benefit of the AKP, we can say that the way to win this election is not only through the ballot boxes, but also through the decisions of the YSK. In this respect, the members of the YSK, who are supposed to be impartial, have a great responsibility in this election.

YSK Decisions

<ul fr-original-style="padding-inline-start: 20px;" style="padding-inline-start: 20px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; list-style-position: inside; box-sizing: border-box;"><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Turkey Report's survey revealed the revolt of the society against femicides. The rate of those who think that "unjust punishments increase violence against women" was 83 percent, and the rate of those who think that punishments in femicide cases are "mostly unjust" was 80 percent.</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">The survey conducted by Yöneylem Social Research Centre showed that the rate of swing voters was 10.9 percent and the rate of those who stated that they would not vote was 9.2 percent. Without distributing these two groups proportionally to the parties, AK Party's and CHP's votes were measured as 23.6 percent and 23.5 percent, respectively. İYİ Party was seen as having 11.9 percent, HDP 7.2 percent, and MHP 4.8 percent support.</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Editor's comment: Distributing swing voters proportionally can be a misleading method. If undecided voters, most of whom are thought to be dissatisfied with the course of events, decide to vote for the opposition parties on election day, the CHP could easily become the first party.</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Parties with fewer votes: The same survey, again without distributing the undecided voters proportionally, showed that the Zafer Party received 2 percent of the votes, Yeniden Refah Party and DEVA Party 1.8 percent each, Workers' Party of Turkey 0.8 percent, Saadet Party and Gelecek Party 0.5 percent each.</li></ul>

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