Erdoğan's right to seek re-election Before the 2018 elections, Turkish presidents were serving as
heads of state within a
parliamentary system. After the
2017 constitutional referendum, Turkey adopted a
presidential system in which the president serves as the
head of government. Some opposition politicians state that since Erdoğan was elected president twice in 2014 and 2018, he cannot be a candidate again unless an early election is called by the Parliament, as stated in Article 116 of the constitution.
Political violence On 10 March, CHP parliamentary group deputy chair
Özgür Özel claimed that Kılıçdaroğlu received assassination threats by unknown groups and was offered a minister's armoured vehicle by the government, but he rejected the proposal and kept his official car. On 7 May, Istanbul Mayor
Ekrem İmamoğlu was attacked during a rally in
Erzurum. His rally was interrupted due to stones thrown from the crowd. After the attack, İmamoğlu supporters rushed to the
Sabiha Gökçen Airport in Istanbul to welcome and show support for him. Erzurum's mayor Mehmet Sekmen said that there was no written application made from Republican People's Party's provincial chairmanship to hold a rally in Erzurum, and it was İmamoğlu "was the one who created the chaos by rallying in Erzurum". The Interior Minister
Süleyman Soylu said that the incident was planned by İmamoğlu to aggravate the crowds. On 12 May, extensive security measures were taken before and during Kılıçdaroğlu's rally in
Samsun following the rumours of assassination attempts of Kılıçdaroğlu. Citizens who wanted to attend the rally held in Republic Square were searched twice. Snipers were placed on the roofs of buildings located around the square. İmamoğlu and Kılıçdaroğlu, who took the stage to make their speeches, were seen wearing bulletproof vests. While Kılıçdaroğlu was giving his speech, a large guard group accompanied him on the stage armed. While visiting the burials of citizens who lost their lives during the earthquake in
Adıyaman Province, Kılıçdaroğlu was subjected to a
verbal attack while he was reciting
Al-Fatiha. The same day, another person attempted a physical attack. Two days after the attack on İmamoğlu, Kılıçdaroğlu's vehicle was attacked with stones in
Sakarya. The 15-year-old attacker was released after Kılıçdaroğlu decided not to press charges and he also asked for the anonymity of the child's identity.
Erdoğan's photo on ballot paper Erdoğan appeared with the same photograph on the ballot paper as the one he used for the
presidential elections in 2014 and
2018.
Fake videos On the Sunday before the elections Erdoğan showed an altered version of an election commercial belonging to his main challenger Kılıçdaroğlu. This commercial was edited with footage of
Murat Karayılan, one of the founders of the
PKK, in an attempt to link Kilicdaroglu with the PKK. In a television interview, Erdoğan was asked about the footage. He replied that it did not matter whether it was manipulated or not, and insisted that the claim the video made was nevertheless true. Similarly, presidential spokesman
İbrahim Kalın said "Video edited by a group of witty young people. The elements put together in the video are real". Kılıçdaroğlu called Erdoğan "fraudulent video fabricator". Kılıçdaroğlu also filed a 1 million TRY non-pecuniary damage lawsuit against Erdoğan through his lawyer Celal Çelik. On 25 May, the Ankara 6th Criminal Court of Peace blocked access to a troll account that shared fake footage used by Erdoğan during the election process, on the grounds that it "attacks personal rights". İnce claimed that
deepfake technology had been used to make the video and stated he had suffered "
character assassination" and blamed the country's journalists and public prosecutors for not protecting him from the "fury of
slander".
Block of Ekşi Sözlük One day before the election, the website
Ekşi Sözlük was blocked from access reasoned as "for the protection of national security and public order".
Twitter censorship On the eve of the election,
Elon Musk's
Twitter restricted access within Turkey to accounts that were critical of Erdoğan at the request of the Turkish government.
Reporting of the results On election night, the CHP complained about reports of Erdogan leading in the polls by the
Anadolu Agency and produced its own numbers that held Kilicdaroglu as the leading candidate. The first results mainly come from smaller rural towns, where Erdogan and his AK party are generally popular. There were also criticisms directed at the slow pace of counting ballots cast abroad. At the time of 90% of domestic ballots were counted, only 30.8% of ballots from abroad had been counted. Ahmet Yener of the Supreme Election Council said these delays were "normal" and that the increase in the number of ballots and contesting parties slowed counting. The YSP demanded a repetition of the election for Gaziantep, where according to the YSP two thousand potential YSP voters were not able to vote as they were inscribed as members of the ballot committee by the
Patriotic Party (VP) without informing them. The request was deemed an unreasonable objection by the provincial election presidency. The
Russian Government rejected the claims. Azerbaijani journalist
Afgan Mukhtarli said that "pro-Aliyev media and trolls" campaigned against Kılıçdaroğlu, and adding that "Oğan has close relations with the Azerbaijani government", and that "Aliyev's role is certain in Oğan's decision". A journalist asked Oğan if he met with Aliyev before taking this decision. Upon the question Oğan said that his interlocutors are Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu. On 23 May,
Adil Aliyev, deputy chairman of the
National Assembly of Azerbaijan, made a propaganda speech on behalf of the People's Alliance in
Melekli district of
Iğdır, Oğan's hometown. == Opinion polls ==