European Parliament’s support for democracy and election coordination group co-chairs McAllister and McAvan issued a written statement on the elections in Turkey.

The statement said the EP will not be sending observers to the elections and will not comment on the outcome.

The statement issued by McAllister and McAvan is as follows:

“The European Parliament will not monitor the election process, nor will it comment on the process or the outcome. No member of the EP has authority to monitor these elections or to comment on them in the name of the EP.

As such, if a member of the European Parliament decides to monitor the elections, it will be on their own volition and they will need to refrain from any statements or actions that would be binding for the EP.”

The statement didn’t clarify why no observers would be sent for the elections, but a decision by the PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) Monitoring Commission in April had called for the postponing of the snap elections. The call had pointed out the State of Emergency conditions and stated that any elections to be held on June 24 would “fail to comply with European criteria”.