CHP slams election board for controversial decision

The main opposition party leader accused the election watchdog of violating laws and therefore making the referendum equivocal while stressing that almost half of the Turkish people was against the charter amendments even though constitutions should reflect a national consensus.

"The Supreme Council of Elections made this referendum disputable," Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, head of the Republican People's Party (CHP) told reporters at the main opposition party headquarters late yesterday.

 Noting that the election watchdog breached two main principles of the Election Law by accepting voting papers unofficially sealed, Kılıçdaroğlu stressed, "We don't find it right, we don't accept this." "The rules cannot be changed while a match is being played. But the YSK has changed the rules right after the polls were closed," he stressed. The CHP leader also said that the tight results show that there is no social consensus on the new charter, making a call to make a charter accepted by broader portions of the Turkish society.

The CHP said it will object to the referendum results on the grounds that the vote for the constitutional amendment was manipulated terms of content and method. "Since the morning there has been serious chaos all over Turkey. The Supreme Board of Elections [YSK] has declared that the board will deem ballots without official seals as valid," CHP deputy leader Erdal Aksünger said, promising to lodge an objection. 

"They canceled ballots without seals in voting abroad. It was the same board that did this," Aksünger said, promising to lodge an objection. Aksünger said his party received information regarding claims that there was a misuse of documents with signatures, criticizing the YSK's decision that deemed ballots without YSK...