Turkey now more divided than ever

ERDOGAN SCORES NARROW VICTORY Opposition leaders have challenged the result, claiming rigging.

Turkey’s embattled opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan can still find glimmers of hope in a shifting political landscape despite the strongman winning a controversial referendum that will hugely enhance his powers.

The “no” vote polled 48.59% in the April 16 poll after a lopsided campaign that saw the “yes” dominate the airwaves with Erdogan speeches and flood the streets with pro-government billboards.

Opposition leaders have also challenged the result, claiming rigging and a last-minute change to the rules by the election board distorted the outcome, an argument vehemently rejected by the authorities.

But analysts say that the official results make troubling reading for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Erdogan, who just two days before the poll confidently predicted that “yes” would win with up to 60%.

The results showed support for “yes” down among the young – especially first time voters – and in big cities with both Ankara and Istanbul backing “no” despite having AKP mayors.

The electoral map showed Turkey more divided than ever, with the “no” vote dominating from Thrace down into the Mediterranean coast and into the Kurdish-dominated southeast but “yes” holding strong in the Anatolian interior and the Black Sea region.

Meanwhile, the AKP’s alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) failed to work with many nationalist voters defying the support of the MHP’s longstanding and enigmatic leader Devlet Bahceli for the new presidential system.

Pro-government columnist Abdulkadir Selvi wrote in the Hurriyet daily that the results should be an “early warning” for the AKP ahead of November 2019, when presidential and parliamentary elections will be held simultaneously and most of the constitutional changes come into force.

“The political landscape is obviously changing,” Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, Ankara Office Director for the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told AFP.

“There are worrying signs for the AKP but we should not exaggerate. This was a referendum, not an election.”

Unluhisarcikli said that while over 48.5% may have voted “no”, this was made up from diverse forces ranging from nationalists to Kurds to leftists “who cannot be brought together under a political programme”. – AFP