The Council of Europe’s (CoE) Congress of Local and Regional Authorities will be monitoring the mayoral election in İstanbul slated for June 23, Deutsche Welle Turkish service reported.
The mission will be carried out at Turkey’s invitation, with the participation of 14 observers who will be assigned to random polls in pairs. The monitoring report will be released in July.
Renate Zikmund, the director responsible for the observation of local and regional elections, told DW that they plan to meet with the candidates as well as a number of representatives from civil society and think tanks. İstanbul is scheduled to vote for mayor in a repeat election on Sunday.
A narrow victory by an opposition candidate on March 31 was cancelled by the country’s election authority due to alleged irregularities put forward by the ruling party.