ISTANBUL -- Under the shadow of a tear-gassed media crackdown and concerns about election fraud, 54 million voters are heading to polls in Turkey on Sunday.
After losing its parliamentary majority and one-party grip on power in elections held in June, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did all in his power to prevent a coalition government being formed in the past five months, leading to these snap elections.
He was especially angry at the Kurdish-dominated People’s Democratic Party (HDP) who were able to get enough votes, from Kurds and Turks, to end Erdogan’s 13-year-long, one-party, rule.
Right after the elections, Turkey witnessed an abrupt, some say orchestrated, rise in chaos, renewed attacks by the militant Kurdish group PKK, and a major terrorist attack by the Islamic State in the heart of Ankara that left 100 people dead.
Erdogan put a new strategy in place. He targeted the nationalist vote, marginalized the Kurdish party and presented the snap elections as a choice between chaos and order.
Opposition parties have been outraged. They blame Erdogan for manipulating the situation to get back his grip on power. Opposition media was dealt a serious blow in the process when the government, using riot police, took over one of the last remaining critical media outlets four days ahead of elections.
Hours before polls opened, government whistle blower Fuat Avni, who has over 2 million followers on Twitter, tweeted about an elaborate scheme he said was devised in the presidential palace to rig the elections. He posted a partial list of judges who he claims have signed up for fraud for Erdogan.
He also warned that members of the main vote monitoring group Oy ve Otesi and the country’s most trusted news agency Cihan News would be kept away from the polls Sunday and some of their members temporarily detained. Avni also claimed that invalid ballot papers cast will be used by pro-AK Party civil servants at election boards and counted in favor of the AKP.
2. Yezid, Kenan İpek ve Fahri Kasırga'ya bu isimleri bulmaları için özel talimat vermişti. Aylardır liste üzerinde çalışılıyor.— fuatavni (@fuatavni_f) October 31, 2015
Hours after Avni’s tweets, a mayor from Erdogan’s AKP reportedly posted a photo of his stamped ballot on social media -- six hours before polls opened. Soon after, a video of an AKP official from Adiyaman province, who was reportedly buying votes in exchange for cash also appeared on social media. It was a long and peculiar pre-election night for Turkey.
Sunday will be a long day as well. After results start coming in, there are concerns the state run Anadolu News Agency could misrepresent exit polls to show AKP’s votes much higher, thus demoralizing vote monitoring groups at the polling stations so they leave early.
During the June elections, the Cihan News Agency experienced a massive cyber attack and there are fears it could face a similar one on Sunday.
Voters, NGOs and opposition parties are all on high alert as Turkey faces one of the most critical elections in its history.
As I write these lines, a power cut is reported in one of Istanbul's most populous neighborhoods, Gungoren, and there are also reports from citizens about cars without license plates near polling stations -- similar cars were also reported during the last election. Electricity is also out in the Kurdish dominated Diyarbakir, in Sur and Baglar provinces.
As for Erdogan… his last official remarks to international media before polls opened were: “What is it to you, mind your own elections.”
Suna Vidinli is a Turkish broadcast journalist, a former prime time anchor for NTV and CNN Turk, and a winner of the 'Leading Women of Turkey Award.'