Turkish Presidential Election

Agreed. Ballot stuffing is so passe these days. The standard model now is:

1. Consolidate power over the media in order to snuff out criticism
2. Introduce laws to minimise criticism on social media
3. Wrap yourself in the flag. Nobody loves your country like you do and only you have the best interests of the country at heart
4. Encourage or outright employ your own army of turbo patriots on social media to shout down your enemies
5. Eliminate any real political threats via trumped up charges forcing the opposition to pick flawed candidates
6. Deny those flawed candidates any air time at election using your control of the media
7. The above should work but it's also good to have a supplicant Electoral Commission and Supreme Court....
8. .....and army (but that really is a last resort as the generals could just as easily seize power for themselves)

He plays up the religious freedoms (in particular the hijab) introduced under his watch and warns that a victory for the opposition would see these undone.

And back to the media; İt can be extremely persuasive - People aren't arrested and imprisoned for speaking out against the government, they 'pose a threat to the republic' and are usually linked (by the media/government ) to the PKK etc. Essentially every Turk outside the Kurdish regions fervently supports Turkish territorial integrity and abhors the actions of the PKK and related groups. İt's not difficult to turn people against the opposition in such circumstances.