26 June 2018•Update: 26 June 2018
By Cigdem Alyanak and Zehra Melek Cat
ISTANBUL
Officials from several media outlets in Turkey on Tuesday called Anadolu Agency’s election coverage in Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary elections “successful".
Anadolu Agency monitored voting across the country in real time and broke accurate news to its 2,250 subscribers all over the world in 13 languages.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Turkish news channel NTV’s veteran presenter Oguz Haksever said Anadolu Agency was on top of its game on Election Day.
“Anadolu Agency exchanged data promptly. […] All the parties confirmed by saying directly or indirectly that these election results were delivered in an accurate way,” Haksever said.
“We’ve never had doubts about this subject [allegations against Anadolu Agency’s coverage] from the beginning because talks with Anadolu Agency were held in advance.”
With 99.9 percent of votes counted, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won an absolute majority in the presidential poll with 52.5 percent of the vote, while main opposition candidate Muharrem Ince lagged behind at 30.6 percent.
CNN Turk’s General Manager Bora Bayraktar thanked Anadolu Agency for its “unproblematic” election coverage.
Stating that he did not believe that Anadolu Agency manipulated the results as alleged, Bayraktar said: “Numbers may change in the elections held all over the world. I don’t think there was a situation [during the election] as exaggerated.”
He also appreciated the efficient and quick reporting. “We are very pleased that the results are delivered quickly. We prefer quicker announcement of the results.
“It was quicker compared to the previous years, that was good,” he added.
Anadolu Agency teams worked in 81 provinces and continued its tradition of accurate and efficient coverage since 2014.
The news was provided to 150 local and international media organizations who had subscribed to Anadolu Agency Election Data package.
Anadolu Agency prepared a comprehensive package consisting of election data from polling stations, a special interface for TV screens, an online map interface for websites, and a candidate database.
The results were also announced at "secim.aa.com.tr" with the help of maps and graphics.
The agency also prepared "candidate database", which also enabled its subscribers to access background information on the deputies.
