New electoral regulations proposed by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party and its nationalist allies could endanger the fairness of the country’s scheduled 2019 elections, the Turkish opposition said on February 22.

A draft law submitted to parliament on February 21 states that security force members will be permitted to enter polling stations when invited by a voter. The government says the provision will help stamp out the intimidation of voters by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), active in the mainly Kurdish southeastern part of Turkey. But the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said it would expose polling stations to voting fraud.  

Another part of the bill gives the YSK High Electoral Board the power to merge electoral districts and switch ballot boxes to other districts. Ballots would be admissible even without the local electoral board’s stamp, a move that would formalise a decision made during the constitutional referendum last year on forming an executive presidency with sweeping powers for Erdogan, a decision that scandalised government critics and drew strong objections from election monitors. Some academics insisted there was evidence consistent with the proposition that the referendum may have been rigged in favour of the Yes camp.

“The proposal has many regulations that remove the open, fair, transparent and democratic tenets of elections,” Filiz Kerestecioglu, a lawmaker from the HDP, told Reuters.

Turks are due to go to the polls next year for both presidential and parliamentary elections.