FEMALE OBSERVERS FOR US ELECTIONS

As the whole world is closely watching the race for United States presidential election of 2016 between Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, and Donald Trump, the Republican Party's presidential nominee, 9 women from Turkey are observing the elections. Itır Bağdadi, Lecturer of Department of Political Science and International Relations, Izmir University of Economics (IUE), who was invited by Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) to observe the American political system and voters in Washington D.C, said that Donald Trump lost her support due to his discriminatory remarks especially towards women. 

Bağdadi observed the conduct of an election process with Sunay Karamık, Chairwoman of KA.DER (Association for Support of Women Candidates), and its members. Bağdadi, who also talked about the past, present, and future of women’s rights in Turkey, stated the following regarding the elections in USA:

“Donald Trump represents masculine power and utters discriminatory and hateful remarks towards women at times without giving a second thought. Trump had hard time in his campaign after his boasts about sexually assaulting women in a ‘locker room chat’ many years ago when microphone left on became public. And even before that he also delivered hate speeches about both Muslims and black people. Donald Trump's outspoken views, which were very attractive in the beginning, make Republicans think twice now about his bluntness actually being hate speeches.”

‘Undecided voters back Clinton’

Trump has lost great deal of the support due to his remarks about women, reported Bağdadi, and she said, “This situation convinced undecided voters, who did not want to vote for any of the parties, to support Clinton. And it also increased the number of Republicans who oppose Donald Trump.”