CHP head Kılıçdaroğlu: Gov't cannot deter us from objections

"I know what the government is trying to do," said Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the social democratic Republican People's Party (CHP), on the phone on April 21. Referring to President Tayyip Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti), he said they were "trying to deter us from appealing to the courts and protecting the democratic rights of the people regarding the April 16 referendum results."

We had that telephone conversation shortly after the CHP appealed to the Council of State (Danıştay) following the Supreme Election Board's (YSK) rejection of the party's appeal to cancel the referendum result over claims of voting irregularities that allegedly could have changed the outcome. Some 51.4 percent approved the shift to the executive presidential system and 48.6 percent voted against it. 

Lawyers for the CHP said they had appealed to the Council of State because the YSK decision was not a court ruling but rather an administrative action, which cannot be above the law. The CHP has also said it will support the use of people's individual application right to both the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) if necessary.

"We are not going to give up protecting the democratic right of the people," said Kılıçdaroğlu. "Some 49 million citizens cast their votes but there is a shadow on the vote because of what the YSK did. Despite a clear statement in the Election Law, the YSK stated during the vote counting process that unsealed ballots would be counted as valid."

"Over 23 million people voted against the constitutional changes and they now have doubts about the fairness of the result directly because of that YSK decision. In today's Turkey a regular citizen may not be able to claim...