Turkish constitutional referendum 'Yes' campaign

The Turkish referendum on the presidency is over but both the legal and the political debates are continuing, despite the Supreme Election Board's (YSK) rejection of the appeals by the opposition parties over the claims of fraud in the vote count.

In pro-government and allegiant media many pundits have been exploring the reasons behind the 48.6 percent "No" vote. It appears that while the "No" front claims the referendum was rigged, at least 2.5 to three percentage points of the votes cast were stolen or replaced with "yes" votes in "unsealed envelopes," the "Yes" front is having difficulty understanding how almost 49 percent of the nati

As Turkey's Supreme Election Board (YSK) rejected the appeal of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) to cancel the April 16 referendum because of fraud claims, the first public opinion poll following the referendum, which approved the replacement of the parliamentarian system with an executive presidential model, has provided interesting results regarding the profile of voters in Turk

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is considering revising both the cabinet and its party management after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan returns to his party in the coming weeks. 

The AKP's general convention will take place in 2018, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said, signaling that Erdoğan will not become the party's chair before that date.  

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has rejected claims that his party lost votes at the referendum, slamming commentators who argued that the MHP roots offered little support to the "yes" camp. 

Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım sought on April 18 to deliver conciliatory messages to opposition groups and citizens who voted against the shift to an executive presidential system after a tense referendum process that resulted in a narrow win for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the government. 

Polls conducted over the last few years on Turkish society's sociological profile reveal that at least 60 percent of the population is made up of pious, conservative and nationalist people.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has concluded in a meeting after the results of the April 16 charter referendum were revealed that a "federalism" debate with its ally opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had cost a 2 percent loss to the "yes" vote, according to sources. 

"Yes" voters and "no" voters are just as valuable as each other, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said in an address to ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) followers in Ankara following a provisional win in a divisive constitutional referendum. 

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli said on April 14 that remarks by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım refuting a "federal state structure" with the constitutional amendments are satisfactory. "Those statements are extremely satisfactory.