President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in Sunday's closely contested national referendum in Turkey even as opposition parties and global observers pointed to irregularities in the voting that will dramatically reshape Turkish politics, jettisoning the country's parliamentary democracy and granting sweeping executive power and near absolute control to the country's president.
Bulent Tezcan, deputy chairman of the opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, said the party filed a formal request seeking the referendum be annulled due to voting irregularities.
Representatives from a coalition of global bodies said the vote took place on an "unlevel playing field", with the "yes" campaign dominating media coverage.
The queues formed as the main opposition party was scheduled to formally request that the electoral authority annul the referendum over the ballots lacking the official stamp.
Worldwide election monitors, including from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, noted a series of irregularities, and said the decision to accept as valid ballots without official stamps undermined safeguards against fraud and was contrary to Turkish law.
"These complaints are to be taken very seriously and they are, in any case, of such an extent that they would turn around the outcome of the vote", Alev Korun told ORF radio.
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"There will be no call to Erdogan from the Commission, certainly not a congratulatory call", a Western official with knowledge of European Union policy told Reuters.
EU Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said on Tuesday that if Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan moved "from rhetoric to action on the issue of the death penalty (it) would be clear signal that Turkey does not want to be a member of the European family". "Turkey is sliding toward a semi-authoritarian system under one man rule".
According to preliminary results published by state media, Erdogan's camp won by about 51%, by a difference of about 1.3 million votes. This could enable President Erdogan to stay in power until 2029. Opponents accuse him of leading a drive toward one-man rule in Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member that borders Iran, Iraq and Syria and whose stability is of vital importance to the United States and the European Union. "The will of the people was freely reflected into the ballot boxes and this business is over". Everyone and all sections and the main opposition party in particular must show respect. Some voters had been unable to cast their ballots in private, he also said. But many "No" voters saw the referendum as a power-hungry leader's attempt to cement his position.
But it said that had failed to happen, and that evidence of irregularities had therefore not been properly archived. It canceled the results of local elections in two districts in southeastern Turkey in April 2014 and re-held them two months later.
And in Sunday's referendum, the YSK's overseas election branch had already rejected an appeal by a ruling AK Party official to have unstamped envelopes counted as valid.
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