Opposition opposes poll result
Trump congratulates Erdogan after victory
ANKARA: Turkey’s opposition yesterday pressed its allegations of foul play in the referendum on enhancing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s powers, as Donald Trump congratulated his counterpart but the European Union kept its distance.
The “Yes” camp won Sunday’s poll with 51.41% of the vote but the aftermath has been shadowed by opposition claims of blatant vote rigging and angry protests in parts of Istanbul. The EU, worried also by threats from Mr Erdogan to restore capital punishment, has been far from effusive in its response, yet Mr Trump late on Monday congratulated Mr Erdogan in a phone call.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy leader Bulent Tezcan was due to formally request the annulment of the polls with the Supreme Election Board (YSK) yesterday, the party said in a statement.
The changes, most of which are due to come into force after November 2019, are some of the most far-reaching in the country since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk established the modern state in the ashes of the Ottoman Empire in 1923.
The opposition has been particularly incensed by a last-minute move from the Supreme Election Board to accept ballot documents in envelopes without an official stamp.
In an interview with the Hurriyet daily, CHP chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu said that the YSK has “changed the rules of the game during the match”. “This is not something to be forgiven,” he said.
Another CHP deputy leader, Erdal Aksunger, said there were violations at some 10,900 schools used as polling stations. “This has now reached another dimension,” he said.
International observers on Monday echoed some of the concerns of the opposition, enraging Mr Erdogan.
The joint mission of OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said the YSK’s move on the stamps “removed an important safeguard”.
After a l opsided campaign that saw the “Yes” vote dominate the airwaves, the observers also complained the campaign was conducted on an “unlevel playing field”. But speaking to thousands of supporters in a triumphant address outside his presidential palace Mr Erdogan told the mission to “know your place”, saying Turkey had no intention of paying any attention to the report.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told his ruling party in Ankara yesterday that “everyone has to respect the result, including the main opposition party”. “The nation’s will emerged freely from the ballot box ... This work has now finished. It’s wrong to say something after the nation has spoken,” he said.
The new system would dispense with the prime minister’s post and centralise the entire executive bureaucracy under the president, giving Mr Erdogan the direct power to appoint ministers. But the “Yes” vote has even wider implications for Turkey, which joined Nato in 1952 and in the last half century has been engaged in a stalled bid to join the European Union.
Mr Erdogan reaffirmed he would now hold talks on reinstating capital punishment — a move that would automatically end Turkey’s EU bid — and would call another referendum if it did not get enough votes in parliament to become law.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that if Ankara were to bring back the death penalty, the move would be “synonymous with the end of the European dream” for Turkey. In contrast to the tensions with the EU, Mr Trump called Mr Erdogan to “congratulate him on his recent referendum victory”, the White House said in a statement.
In a blow to the prestige of the president, the “No” campaign notched up the most votes in Turkey’s three biggest cities: Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
Analysts have said that the performance of the “No” campaign was impressive especially given that the election was held under a state of emergency. “Given bureaucratic pressures of the state, the fact it used all the financial means and the poll took place within the state of emergency, the “No” camp recorded a great democratic victory,” added Mr Kilicdaroglu.