ACADEMICS, lawyers, trade unionists and human rights activists from Britain have reported witnessing widespread election fraud in Turkey last weekend as the public cast their parliamentary and presidential votes.

The delegation visited the country’s mostly Kurdish-majority southeast for two weeks ahead of Sunday’s election, which saw the ruling Islamic-right AKP government lose seats but secure a parliamentary lead through its alliance with the nationalist MHP and other far-right parties.

The fate of the country’s president was left unclear after current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was unable to secure majority votes but just a few points ahead of central candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu.