Referendum

The pre-referendum period was particularly informative with regard to the state of journalism in Turkey, with widespread violations of ethical principles and with partisan journalism intertwined with politics.   

The referendum result is dubious and the office that cast doubt on the referendum is the Supreme Board of Elections (YSK), main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said, accusing the election watchdog of violating the constitution and manipulating the poll results.

Turkey's main opposition party and scores of citizens have appealed to the election watchdog for the annulment of a critical referendum that resulted in a narrow win for the government, arguing that unsealed ballot papers and envelopes were counted in open violation of the law.   

A last-minute decision by Turkey's electoral board to allow unstamped ballots in the April 16 constitutional referendum was "clearly against the law," preventing proper records being kept and potentially impacting the result, the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) has stated.

A relative of mine was an observer of a vote count at an Istanbul ballot box for the April 16 referendum on whether to shift Turkey from a parliamentary system to an executive presidential one. As she later told me, the count resulted in 275 "No" and 84 "Yes" votes. 

Turkey's main opposition party has vowed to take widespread irregularities during the April 16 referendum to the Constitutional Court and European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), repeating its accusations against the election watchdog and calling on the Supreme Election Board (YSK) to annul the referendum results.

Ankara's relations with the European Union will be an area of "common interest" in the post-referendum era, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said, adding that the "noise" between Ankara and Europe should die down after the European elections cycle.

 Turkey is voting in a constitutional referendum that will decide whether to replace the current parliamentary system with an executive presidency.

The vote on April 16 is the seventh referendum in modern Turkish history. The results of previous referendums are as follows: 

An employee with Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality was suspended from duty on April 13 after sharing a post on social media saying that the wives and daughters of naysayers in the charter referendum were "halal" for "yes" voters as "spoils of war."

 "Our people are making a revolution. People are stepping to form their own state. A happy April 16 to all…"

Now you would ask, "Which people?" Is it the 51 percent who will say "Yes," or the 51 percent who will say

"No?"