Erdogan slams criticism of disputed Turkey poll
ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday angrily rejected criticism by international monitors of a referendum granting him extra powers that was disputed by the opposition and exposed bitter divisions in the country.
The referendum was seen as crucial not just for shaping Turkey’s political system but also the future strategic direction of a nation that has been a Nato member since 1952 and a European Union hopeful for half a century.
Returning in triumph to his presidential palace in Ankara, Erdogan addressed thousands of supporters gathered outside, telling monitors who criticised the poll: ‘Know your place.’
Showing no sign of pulling his punches, Erdogan said Turkey could hold further referendums on its EU bid and re-introducing the death penalty.
The ‘ Yes’ camp won 51.41 per cent in Sunday’s referendum, according to complete results released by election authorities.
But the opposition immediately cried foul, claiming a clean vote would have made a difference of several percentage points and handed them victory.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party ( HDP) said they would challenge the results from most ballot boxes due to alleged violations.
“There is only one decision to ease the situation in the context of the law – the Supreme Election Board ( YSK) should annul the vote,” the Dogan news agency quoted CHP deputy leader Bulent Tezcan as saying.
The referendum has no “democratic legitimacy”, HDP spokesman and lawmaker Osman Baydemir told reporters in Ankara.
There were protests in Istanbul with a few thousand people crowding the anti- Erdogan Besiktas and Kadikoy districts, blowing whistles and chanting ‘We are shoulder to shoulder against fascism’.
Others brandished viral hashtag slogans from the referendum night like ‘The ‘No’ is not finished’ and ‘’No’ has won’.
The opposition had already complained of an unfair campaign that saw the ‘Yes’ backers swamp the airwaves and use billboards across the country in a saturation advertising campaign.
International observers agreed the campaign was conducted on an ‘unlevel playing field’ and that the vote count itself was marred by procedural changes that removed key safeguards.
“The legal framework remained inadequate for the holding of a genuinely democratic referendum,” the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights ( ODIHR) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe ( PACE) monitors said in a statement.
The Turkish opposition was particularly incensed by a decision by the YSK to allow voting papers without official stamps to be counted, which they said opened the way for fraud.
“Late changes in counting procedures removed an important safeguard,” said Cezar Florin Preda, head of the PACE delegation.
But Erdogan told the mission to ‘ know your place’, saying Turkey had no intention of paying any attention to the report.
He added: “This country held the most democratic polls that have never been seen in any other country in the West.” — AFP