In less than four weeks on June 24 Turkish voters will go to the polls to elect their new president and Parliament. Several political and economic issues are at stake as these elections will introduce a new presidential system in Turkey.

The new system, voted in last year in a referendum, will be a presidential system of governance with a unitary state. No federalism is involved, so it is different from the American system. It is closer to the French presidential system, but there will be no prime minister, so it is different from it as well. The new system emphasizes the separation of powers, i.e. the legislative, executive and judicial. Parliament will make laws and audit the government. The president will have full power over his cabinet but will also be held responsible by the people. The judiciary will be independent and impartial. This will protect Turkey's stability from weak coalition governments.

Several candidates have entered the race for the presidency. Not surprisingly, the current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the frontrunner with a comfortable margin ahead of his competitors. He is certain to win it in the first round. Given his long-standing popularity with the Turkish voters, Erdoğan remains the most trusted political leader with a big portfolio of services and major sociopolitical changes over the last 16 years.

This trust is based on his record. Among many other things, he has revived a moribund Turkish economy, increased Turkey's gross domestic product (GDP) more than three times, opened Turkey to world markets, established dozens of new universities and research centers, ended military tutelage and recognized the rights of Kurds, Alevis, Armenians and other groups in Turkish society that have been stigmatized and oppressed in the past. He stood against soft military and judicial coup attempts in 2007 and 2010 and averted the July 15, 2016 coup plot by Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) terrorists.

Providing services without discrimination and recognizing people's identities and cultural traditions have been part and parcel of Erdoğan's political philosophy. This is also reflected in the new election campaign. This is where he gets ahead of his opponents. As the leader of a center-right political party, he seeks to embrace all members of society rather than building a narrow base around ethnic, regional or ideological allegiances. As a fact of politics, not everybody likes his policies, but his appeal has clearly spread across the social and political spectrum.

By contrast, his opponents run their campaigns with anti-Erdoğan strategies by opposing everything he represents and rejecting everything he says to win. This never worked in the past and will not work on June 24. Turkish voters have the knowledge and sagacity to distinguish empty talk from actual reality. When opposition figures make outrageous claims to score a cheap political point or make unrealistic promises, voters are not moved a bit because they know the game.

This is what the vast majority of the Western media misses out on Turkey in almost every election. They have predicted Erdoğan's imminent losses at the ballot box, but he keeps winning. They promote opposition figures as new and alternative voices but fail to understand the social and political dynamics of Turkish society. Almost without exception, they mislead their readers by presenting a distorted picture of Turkey; thus, fail at their assessments and predictions of Turkish elections. They push the mainstream currents including the broad-based popular support for Erdoğan to the margin and present marginal voices as mainstream. This is a disservice to journalism.

Presenting everything anti-Erdoğan as good and reasonable is not actually good or reasonable journalism. It is political activism. Erdoğan is used to these sorts of smear campaigns and can handle it easily, as he has done in the past. Some analysts may present his strong leadership style and political dominance as "authoritarianism" but even this cheap propaganda does not do any good because ordinary citizens know full well what Erdoğan has done for them.

In the upcoming days, I wonder how environmentally-conscious Western journalism will react to another election pledge by President Erdoğan to set up 30 medium and five large-scale urban parks dubbed as "nation's gardens." As part of his pledge, Erdoğan promised to transform Istanbul's Atatürk Airport, which will become dormant after the opening of the new airport later this year, into a public park. This new park, which will spread out over 11.7 square-kilometers of Istanbul, will be three times as large as New York's Central Park and eight times the size of London's Hyde Park. It is without doubt the biggest urban greenery project in Turkey's history. Most probably, the Western media will misinterpret and neglect this development and we will once again see a repeat of political activism masquerading as journalism over the next four weeks.

The so-called Turkey experts will attack Erdoğan and promote his opponents. Fine. But they should do this at least with a certain degree of credibility, honesty and facts. Writing doomsday scenarios about the Turkish economy, glorifying PKK terrorists, sweetening the FETÖ Gülenists and giving airspace to baseless allegations by Erdoğan's sworn enemies will not dissuade Turkish voters from voting for Erdoğan on June 24; however, it will expose once more the low standards of journalism and political commentary when it comes to the coverage of Turkey in the Western media.

The June 24 elections are important to maintain Turkey's political stability, economic growth and overall security – all of which are important not just for Turkey, but also for the Middle East, Europe and the United States. As a major NATO ally, Turkey's strength is the strength of its allies, but the threats that Turkey faces should also be considered threats by its NATO allies.

At any rate, it is the Turkish voters not some media outlets or interest groups who will make the final decision on June 24 with their own free will and choice.