Erdogan claims victory in vote over sweeping new powers

International Desk: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed victory in a referendum granting him sweeping new powers, hailing the result as an "historic decision".

The leader called on the international community to respect the result and discouraged his critics from "belittling" the outcome, saying they "shouldn't try, it will be in vain".

The state-run Anadolu news agency claimed that 51 per cent per cent of voters had sided with the "Yes" campaign, ushering in the most radical change to the country's political system in modern times.

But the main opposition the Republican People's Party (CHP) said they would demand a recount of up to 40 per cent of the vote, saying that "illegal acts" occurred during the vote and that there were up to 2.5m "problematic ballots". The pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) also claimed they had information that voter fraud was implicated in up to four per cent of the ballots. Both parties said they would appeal the results.

The Supreme Election Commission said it would make the unprecedented decision to count ballots that had not been stamped by its officials as valid unless they could be proved fraudulent, citing a high number of complaints that its officials at polling stations had failed to stamp them.

Anadolu reported that Mr Erdogan had called allied political leaders to congratulate them over the yes win, with the words: “May this result be fortunate for our nation.” Meanwhile, Mr Erdogan was said to have told Prime Minister Binali Yildirim that the results were “clear”, according to presidential sources.

Source: Agencies


risingbd/Dhaka/April 17, 2017/A K Azad