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. "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. 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. RELATED Explosion at Turkish police compound deemed terror attack

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.
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.