European Union urges Turkey to investigate election fraud

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"The government is not using this state of emergency to be able to prevent any threat, but is using it mainly to be able to curb the freedom of expression, all freedom of assembly, to squeeze public and to dictate the result of the referendum because in the aftermath of the referendum there are already and could be more demonstrations, so they want to control", Yilmaz said.

Regardless of a dogged European campaign, following some controversial bans on the "yes" bloc and overt support for the naysayers, Turks in Europe overwhelmingly voted "yes", in favor of the proposed constitutional amendments.In Belgium, where voter turnout was above 53 percent, almost 75 percent of voters opted for "yes".

But Binali Yildirim warned that calling for street protests was unacceptable.

Furthermore, the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party complained that 3m votes had been unstamped.

"Erdogan, whose narrow victory laid bare the nation's divisions, told flag-waving supporters that foreign election observers should "know their place" and Turkey did not "see, hear or acknowledge" criticism that the vote did not live up to global standards", reported Reuters.

"We call on the Turkish authorities to consider the next steps very carefully, and to seek the broadest possible national consensus in the follow-up to the national referendum", European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said at a press conference in Brussels.

The opposition has listed a series of irregularities, but has been particularly outraged by an electoral board decision announced late on Sunday to accept ballots that did not bear the official stamps used to verify they are genuine, as required by Turkish law. "It's wrong to say something after the nation has spoken", he said.

Massive anti-Maduro protests continue in Venezuela
Being barred from office does not involve imprisonment, though authorities routinely accuse Capriles of conspiring against Maduro. He called for an uprising after the ban was announced, adding: "You can shove your disqualification where the sun doesn't shine".

On Monday, head of the election body, Said Guven, defended the decision to allow votes that did not bear official seals to be counted alongside checked ballots.

Several German political parties have called for an end to the negotiations with Turkey on its accession to the European Union and the suspension of all provision of weapons.

The government and the Supreme Board and Elections (YSK) have together "staged a coup against the national will", main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said, adding that his party "does not recognize" the result of the referendum shifting Turkey to an executive presidential system.

Ignoring these monitors, US President Donald Trump called Erdogan on Monday to congratulate him on the referendum.

The OSCE's head of mission, Tana de Zulueta, said on Monday that freedom of expression was curbed during the campaign, that the conditions of the vote fell "well short" of global standards, and that some election monitors were inhibited from doing the job they were invited to do.

Trump is now the only leader in the Western world to congratulate Erdogan on the election results, effectively endorsing the outcome and extending the imprimatur of the United States government on democracy's slow demise in Turkey.

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