Supporters of the opposition Republican People's Party shout slogans during a protest against the referendum results in front of the Istanbul Courthouse in Turkey on Tuesday. The European Commission has called on Turkey to launch an investigation into allegations of voting irregularities. Photo by Sedat Suna/EPA

April 18 (UPI) -- The European Commission has called on Turkey to launch an investigation into allegations of voting irregularities following a report stating its referendum was not genuinely democratic.

The European Commission's request is a direct response to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe election monitor's preliminary conclusion in which it said Turkey's referendum was not impartial and instead favored President Recep Tayyip Erdogan amid "limitations on fundamental freedoms."

The European Commission said it has "taken note and examined attentively" the OSCE's report.

"There is serious concern regarding the broader environment in which the referendum took place: the lack of equal opportunities, the one-sided media coverage and limitations on fundamental freedoms did not create a level playing field and the two sides of the campaign did not have equal opportunities," the European Commission said in a statement.

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Erdogan claimed victory on Sunday after a majority of Turkish voters appeared to have granted the president sweeping new powers. But the international electoral monitor said that while the referendum's technical processes were well administered, there were key issues related to media coverage and the circumstances under which the vote occurred, such as Turkey's ongoing state of emergency enacted after a failed coup d'etat attempt last year.

With more than 99 percent of the ballots counted, 51.34 percent of people said "yes" to increase Erdogan's powers compared with 48.667 percent that cast "no" votes. The results have yet to be validated.

"In view of the report ... the close referendum result and the far-reaching implications of the constitutional amendments, 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 referendum," the European Commission added. "We call on all actors to show restraint and on the authorities to launch transparent investigations into alleged irregularities."

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Turkey's main opposition party, the Republican People's Party, has vowed to contest irregularities with Turkey's Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights. It also called on the Supreme Election Board to annul the referendum results.

Under the new authority, Erodgan will be able to appoint Cabinet ministers, issue decrees, choose senior judges and dissolve parliament, the Grand National Assembly. The change would also lower the minimum age for lawmakers from 25 to 18, increase the number of seats in parliament from 550 to 600, close down military courts, and introduce same-day parliamentary and presidential elections every five years.</s>The EU has called on the civil authorities in Turkey to launch a transparent investigation into the referendum result granting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers.

A spokesman for European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said claims from neutral observers of election irregularities had been “examined attentively” in Brussels.

“In view of the observers’ report, the close referendum result and the far-reaching implications of the constitutional amendments, we call on the Turkish authorities to consider the next steps very carefully and seek the broadest possible national consensus in the follow-up to the referendum,” the spokesman said. “We call on all actors to show restraint and on the authorities to launch transparent investigations into these alleged irregularities found by the observers.”

Significantly, the spokesman confirmed that neither Mr Juncker nor the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, had spoken to Mr Erdogan since his victory.

In contrast, US president Donald Trump congratulated the Turkish president personally on the phone on Monday in a conversation in which they discussed recent developments in Syria and the US response to the chemical attack in Syria, and “agreed on the importance of holding Syrian president Bashar al-Assad accountable”.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, the commission’s spokesman added: “As far as the future is concerned, as President Juncker has said in the past, we encourage Turkey to move closer to the EU again and not to move even further and faster away from us.”

The referendum resulted in 51.4 per cent of Turkish voters casting their ballot in support of expanding the powers of the presidency, while the no vote had 48.6 per cent support.

A key point of contention rests on the election board’s late decision to count unstamped ballots, which would have been invalidated in past elections and which accounted for about 1.5 million votes. The yes campaign had taken a lead of 1.1 million votes by the end of the count. Observers from the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the referendum campaign had been conducted on an “unlevel playing field”.

Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim said on Tuesday that claims of irregularities in the referendum were a vain effort to cast doubt on the result, after the main opposition party vowed to apply for the vote to be annulled.

“The people’s will has been reflected at the ballot box, and the debate is over,” Mr Yildirim told his parliamentary group. “Everyone should respect the outcome, especially the main opposition.”

European leaders have been cautious in their response to the result, in part because of fears of endangering a migration deal with Turkey that has stemmed mass movements of people to the continent.

One trade-off for that deal with Turkey, in which it acts as a buffer, has been the promise of giving 75 million Turks the right to enter the EU’s Schengen area without a visa. In a further sign of nervousness about the referendum’s implications for the migration pact, the commission’s spokesman did not rule out visa-free travel coming to fruition for Turkey.

However, asked about Mr Erdogan’s suggestion in his victory speech that he could hold a referendum on reintroducing the death penalty, the commission spokesman described it as “the reddest of red lines” with regard to Turkey’s decade-long attempt to join the bloc.

Talks about accession to the EU began in 2005, but progress has been limited because of concerns over Turkey’s human rights record, among other factors. Mr Erdogan has suggested he will put the accession question to the people in a referendum.</s>BRUSSELS, April 18 (Reuters) - The European Commission called on Turkey on Tuesday to investigate "alleged irregularities" in Sunday's referendum boosting the powers of President Tayyip Erdogan.

"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 referendum," Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told a regular briefing.

"We also call on the authorities to launch a transparent investigation into these alleged irregularities," he said, citing international observer reports and a last-minute decision to allow unstamped ballots in the referendum. (Reporting by Robin Emmott; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)</s>The European Commission has called on Turkey to launch a "transparent investigation" into allegations of irregularities during the referendum giving the president sweeping powers.

Turkey should "consider the next steps very carefully", an EU spokesman said.

European leaders have expressed concern that the result - 51.4% in favour of the changes - has split Turkey.

The main opposition party has launched an appeal to invalidate the result.

The changes - due to be introduced before presidential and parliamentary elections in November 2019 - will turn Turkey into a presidential republic similar to the US and France. This could enable President Erdogan to stay in power until 2029.

More on the outcome:

His narrow victory was ruled valid by Turkey's electoral body, despite claims of irregularities by the opposition.

Despite saying that the voting day was "well administered", the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe criticised the referendum campaign, saying:
• It was an "unlevel playing field" and the two sides of the campaign "did not have equal opportunities"
• It was unbalanced due to the active involvement of the president and several senior officials
• It was tarnished by a number of officials equating No supporters with terrorist sympathisers
• Under the state of emergency, essential fundamental freedoms were curtailed
• Despite some measures, the legal framework remained inadequate for a genuinely democratic referendum.

The Council of Europe - which also monitored the poll - said the vote "did not live up" its standards.

The monitors also criticised a late change by electoral officials that allowed voting papers without official stamps to be counted. But the head of Turkey's electoral body said a similar procedure had been used in past elections.

The Turkish Bar Association described the move as "illegal".

And Austrian MP Alev Korun - one of the Council of Europe observers - said "there is a suspicion that up to 2.5 million votes could have been manipulated" - which would have changed the result. She offered no evidence.

What did the president say about the result?

Mr Erdogan told supporters on Monday that Turkey did not "see, hear or acknowledge the politically motivated reports" of the monitors.

The result, he said, ended the debate on changing the constitution and creating an executive presidency, adding that the process of implementing the reforms would now begin.

His prime minister - whose post is being abolished under the changes - said "rumours of irregularities" were an effort to cast a shadow over the result.

Mr Erdogan also said the country could hold a referendum on its long-stalled EU membership bid.

Additionally, Mr Erdogan said he would approve the death penalty if it was supported in a referendum or a bill was submitted to him through parliament. This would end Turkey's EU negotiations.

What have European leaders said?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the "tight referendum result shows how deeply divided Turkish society is and that means a big responsibility for the Turkish leadership and for President Erdogan personally".

In their statement on Sunday, top European Commission leaders issued a similar call.

In addition to calling for transparent investigations of complaints, Commission spokesman Margaritas Schinas also urged "all actors to show restraint" in his statement on Tuesday.

Other European leaders have expressed concern about the possibility of the return of capital punishment.

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz went further. He said the referendum result was a "clear signal against the European Union". The "fiction" of Turkey's bid to join the bloc must be ended, Mr Kurz said.

In contrast with European leaders, US President Donald Trump has congratulated the Turkish president, hours after the US state department mentioned concerns by international observers and urged Turkey to respect the rights of its citizens - chiming with sentiment in European capitals.

What do the constitutional changes include?
• The president will have a five-year tenure, for a maximum of two terms
• The president will be able to directly appoint top public officials, including ministers and one or several vice-presidents
• The job of prime minister will be scrapped
• The president will have power to intervene in the judiciary, which Mr Erdogan has accused of being influenced by Fethullah Gulen
• The president will decide whether or not to impose a state of emergency</s>BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — The European Union is calling on Turkish authorities to investigate "alleged irregularities" during the constitutional amendments referendum, European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said Tuesday.

"We also call on all actors to show restraint and on the authorities to launch transparent investigations into these alleged irregularities found by the observers," Schinas said at a midday briefing.

Brussels calls on Ankara "to consider the next steps very carefully and to seek the broadest possible national consensus in the follow-up to the referendum," Schinas said.</s>ANKARA (RFE/RL) — A member of the Council of Europe’s election observer mission in Turkey said on April 18 that as many as 2.5 million votes may have been tampered with in a closely contested referendum that expanded presidential powers and could allow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stay in power until 2029.

Alev Korun, an Austrian member of parliament and part of the observer mission for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said the possible manipulation of votes was almost double the margin of Erdogan’s victory in the April 16 referendum.

Korun also said questions have arisen about the actual voting.

“This is about the fact that actually the law only allows official voting envelopes. The highest election authority decided however — as it were, against the law — that envelopes without official stamp should be admitted,” she told ORF radio.

“There is a suspicion that up to 2.5 million votes could have been manipulated,” Korun added.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which conducted a separate observer mission, said Ankara was not cooperating in an investigation into allegations of voting fraud.

Turkey’s main opposition party has formally appealed for the annulment of a referendum to expand Erdogan’s powers, defying the prime minister’s call for political forces to respect the official results of the disputed vote.

People’s Republican Party (CHP) deputy chairman Bulent Tezcan announced he had filed a request with the High Electoral Board (YSK) on April 18, saying the results of the referendum on constitutional changes are “illegitimate” due to voting irregularities.

The challenge from the secularist party comes amid concerns raised by opposition parties and international voting monitors about major voting irregularities in the April 16 referendum.

Proposed changes that will give the president more power and could enable Erdogan to stay in office until 2029 passed with 51.4 percent of the vote, according to electoral officials.

Erdogan’s critics say the reforms will hand extensive power to a man with an increasingly autocratic bent and leave few democratic checks and balances in place.

In an address to legislators from Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) earlier on April 18, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that “the people’s will has been reflected at the ballot box, and the debate is over.”

“Everyone should respect the outcome, especially the main opposition,” he added.

Meanwhile, the European Union urged the country to initiate “transparent investigations” into the allegations of voting irregularities and make efforts to unify the divided nation.

“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.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Istanbul and other Turkish cities late on April 17 to protest the results of the referendum.

The protesters expressed anger about last-minute changes to the referendum voting procedures and an electoral board decision to allow as valid more than a million ballots cast without an official stamp.

The decision by the YSK to allow unstamped ballots was clearly against the law, prevented proper records being kept, and may have impacted the results, according to the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB).

The bar association expects Turkey’s electoral body to realize its constitutional responsibilities in evaluating complaints, a statement said.

Observers from the OSCE and PACE said the legal framework for the referendum “remained inadequate for the holding of a genuinely democratic referendum.”

was last modified: by</s>Th e European Commission has called on Turkey to launch a “transparent investigation” into allegations of irregularities during the referendum giving the president sweeping powers. Turkey should “consider the next steps very carefully”, an EU spokesman said.

European leaders have expressed concern that the result – 51.4% in favour of the changes – has split Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected criticism by international election observers.

Th e main opposition party has launched an appeal to invalidate the result. Th e changes – due to be introduced before presidential and parliamentary elections in November 2019 – will turn Turkey into a presidential republic similar to the US and France.

Th is could enable President Erdogan to stay in power until 2029. His narrow victory was ruled valid by Turkey’s electoral body, despite claims of irregularities by the opposition. Despite saying that the voting day was “well administered”, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe criticised the referendum campaign, saying:
• It was an “unlevel playing fi eld” and the two sides of the campaign “did not have equal opportunities”
• It was unbalanced due to the active involvement of the president and several senior offi cials
• It was tarnished by a number of offi cials equating No supporters with terrorist sympathisers
• State resources were misused
• Under the state of emergency, essential fundamental freedoms were curtailed
• Despite some measures, the legal framework remained inadequate for a genuinely democratic referendum.

Th e Council of Europe – which also monitored the poll – said the vote “did not live up” its standards. Th e monitors also criticised a late change by electoral offi cials that allowed voting papers without offi cial stamps to be counted.

But the head of Turkey’s electoral body said a similar procedure had been used in past elections. Th e Turkish Bar Association described the move as “illegal”

. And Austrian MP Alev Korun – one of the Council of Europe observers – said “there is a suspicion that up to 2.5 million votes could have been manipulated” – which would have changed the result. She off ered no evidence.</s>Turkey held a referendum, April 16, on abolishing the office of prime minister and extending the powers of the presidency, including giving him powers to appoint members of the judiciary, which many critics — at home and abroad — saw as a power grab by Erdogan.

Now, following a preliminary report into the referendum by the Council of Europe (CoE) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the EU has called on Turkey to investigate irregularities in voting.

"Our monitoring showed the 'Yes' campaign dominated the media coverage and this, along with restrictions on the media, the arrests of journalists and the closure of media outlets, reduced voters' access to a plurality of views," said de Zulueta.

The CoE/OSCE report said: "Voters were not provided with impartial information about key aspects of the reform, and civil society organizations were not able to participate."

​"The 18 proposed amendments affecting 72 articles of the constitution were voted on as a single package, contrary to international good practice for referenda. Voters did not have the opportunity to make a choice about each of the distinct issues featured in the amendments," the report said.

"None of the proposed amendments featured on the ballot; voters were simply asked to vote for a yes or no option. The state did not ensure that voters were provided with impartial or balanced information on the amendments and their potential impact, thus limiting their ability to make an informed choice."</s>There were recriminations about erosion of democracy, accusations of intimidation and allegations of voting fraud. But Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged from a bitter campaign with a referendum victory which will give him an iron grip on power and change the political narrative in Turkey.

Campaigners for a “no” vote against the proposals which will make the President virtually unchallengeable claimed serious irregularities at the polls, including the use of unstamped voting papers, and pledged to challenge the counts from up to 60 per cent of the ballot boxes.

Mr Erdogan, in his victory speech to supporters, was dismissive of the complaints: “There are those who are belittling the result. They shouldn’t try, it will be in vain, it is too late now.”

He is in a strong position to ensure that is the case. Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Board has given the outcome a clean bill of health.

The head of the Board, Sadi Guven, insisted there had been no malpractice in the ‘yes’ campaign receiving 51 per cent of the vote. He did not want people who had been given unstamped ballots “by mistake” to be “victimised”. There had not been one single ballot paper which had been fraudulent or fake, he maintained.

Teams of international monitors condemned both the government and the Electoral Board. “The legal framework remained inadequate for the holding of a genuinely democratic referendum,” they said in preliminary conclusions. The full report will not come for another eight weeks and, in any event, has no legal standing in regards to the referendum.

In reality, it had probably been “too late” for those opposed to Mr Erdogan ever since last summer’s attempted coup which had been followed by massive retribution. More than 50,000 people are now in jail, tens of thousands more have been dismissed from their jobs. They include politicians, journalists, lawyers and civil rights activists —— the people who would have been expected to be opposed to the President in the referendum. Also among those targeted were the military, the traditional keeper of the secularist flame of Kemal Ataturk in the face of the Islamist policies of Mr Erdogan and his AKP party.

The ‘no’ campaign had accused the government of undermining it by detaining its leaders and instigating disruption of its rallies. There were repeated complaints about imbalance in media coverage. The AKP party issued a decree suspending the rules whish stipulated must be given equal airtime during elections.

There had been some expectation that Mr Erdogan will call an early election whichever way the result went. But Mehmet Simsek, a deputy prime minister, ruled that out today. A second deputy prime minister, Nurettin Cankil, said that the changes to the constitution would be completed within a year.

But the referendum has left a country traumatised by last Summer’s putsch and the aftermath which followed further divided and polarised.

Three of the country’s biggest cities —- Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir — voted ‘no’, as did Diyarbakir — in a region where the government is engaged in combat with Kurdish separatists and where three people were shot dead outside a polling station.

The ‘yes’ campaign drew most of its support from the AKP heartland, the conservative east of the country.

What was more unexpected is the strong pro-Erdogan vote among the Turkish diaspora in western Europe. The ‘yes’ campaign received the backing of a significant majority in France, Austria and Germany; in the Netherlands victory was by 70 per cent to 30 per cent.

European politicians expressed dismay at what has happened. Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurtz held it was “a clear signal against the European Union” and the “fiction” of Turkey joining should end.

Julia Kockner, a senior figure in Angela Merkel’s CDU party stated that road to EU succession was “well and truly shut”. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker stressed: “We are awaiting the assessment of the International Observation Mission with regard to alleged irregularities."

Mr Erdogan is unlikely to take much notice of the views from Europe. One of his first pronouncements after claiming his win was that he would consider reintroducing the death penalty: something which would effectively scupper the prospect of joining the European Union.

The President had made “standing up to the West” part of his campaign rhetoric and it had resonance among some voters. Hulya Budak, a 36-year-old office worker from Konya, where the AKP has, in the past, received 75 per cent support in elections, wanted to stress: “When I first came to Istanbul 20 years ago with my family I was made to feel uncomfortable because I wore a headscarf. My mother could not get a job in government because of that; we were made to feel backward if we did not dress and behave like the West. Mr Erdogan changed that once he became President and gave us our rights. So of course my family voted ‘yes’ for him at the referendum, we must value or country and culture and not just follow Europe."

But for Engin Cagatay, a teacher and community worker the referendum result was another sign that “Our country is moving deeper into a kind of dictatorship from democracy. We are worried by the way the voting was done in many places, but I don’t we’ll be able to change what happened.

“We are afraid that the values of secularism we had will be in danger: people will be even more afraid to speak out and yes, our last chances of joining the EU will go. But, more than anything else, we should not have one man with so much power, that is not healthy.”</s>The Council of Europe should apologize to Turkey for sending a biased observer to monitor Sunday’s referendum in the country, head of the Turkish parliament’s Human Rights Commission said on Tuesday.

Mustafa Yeneroglu told Anadolu Agency in Istanbul: “The OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] report, announced by a German lawmaker Andrej Hunko who is known for his pro-PKK stance, including support for [the terror group’s] activities and even financial support -- we have documents on this -- shows how it [the report] is frivolous and political.”

On Monday, the OSCE claimed a “lack of equal opportunities, one-sided media coverage and limitations on fundamental freedoms” had created an “uneven playing field” in Turkey’s constitutional referendum.

Yeneroglu also criticized the report stating that there were problematic expressions and approaches in the report such as “equating ‘No’ supporters with terror.”

“This report should be rejected,” he said.

The head of the commission also urged the Council of Europe to apologize to Turkey for the report since “it sent such an observer, who is biased and a terror supporter.”

On Monday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also slammed the report, saying it presented biased viewpoints.

On Sunday, a majority of Turkish voters cast their ballots in favor of 18 constitutional amendments set to, among other things, see Turkey switch from a parliamentary to a presidential system of governance.

Andrej Hunko was a member of a 23-person joint OSCE-Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) delegation sent to Turkey to observe the constitutional referendum last Sunday.

Hunko was sharply criticized as he posed while holding up a flag of the terrorist PKK.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU. During its over 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, more than 40,000 people have lost their lives.
The European Commission, based on the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe report, calls on Turkey to launch an investigation into allegations of referendum voting irregularities.