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Turkey: Opposition vow to challenge Yes vote

Critics question ‘dubious’ constitutional referendum result

TURKEY’S opposition parties vowed yesterday to defeat sweeping new powers for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as authorities claimed victory in the country’s constitutional referendum.

Pro- and anti-government demonstrations took place in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities as the results were announced.

The Supreme Electoral Board declared that Turkey had voted Yes to changes which will abolish the office of prime minister and create an executive presidency, which critics say will end the separation of powers and create an elective dictatorship.

But the margin of victory was narrow — with the Anadolu News Agency saying the Yes vote had 51.41 per cent of the vote to 48.59 for No.

And even this wafer-thin endorsement was only obtained after the electoral board ruled that ballots which lacked an official stamp would be declared valid — a decision which outraged the opposition, which says there are a millionand-a-half such dodgy ballots.

MP Utku Cakirozer said his opposition Republican People’s Party had already begun filing objections to results at local electoral board branches and would take the case to the Supreme Electoral Board.

“At the moment, this is a dubious vote,” he announced.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party said it would challenge the results in the European Court of Human Rights.

It points out that many Kurdish areas in the country’s east have been effectively under siege and many citizens were prevented from voting.

Turkey’s recently reunified Communist Party slammed an outcome “determined by bullying, deception and theft” which had “no legitimacy.”

It said granting more powers to the Justice and Development Party government would only benefit “the enemies of labour” and urged citizens to be vigilant and start organising against the result.

The airwaves and billboards of the country were dominated by the government-backed Yes campaign, while No campaigners faced intimidation and repression.

Since last year’s failed coup, President Erdogan has had tens of thousands of people arrested, including opposition MPs, and closed down newspapers critical of his government.

Yesterday he declared it was “too late” for the opposition to complain about the result and reiterated plans to “revisit” bringing back the death penalty.

Turkey has not executed prisoners since 1984.

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