Turkey releases final referendum results

Turkey’s electoral authority on Thursday released the official results for last week's referendum on constitutional change to expand presidential powers, which confirmed a narrow win for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "yes" camp.

The final results released showed that the "Yes" camp received 51.4 percent of the votes to approve the sweeping constitutional changes, while the "no" votes garnered 48. 59 percent.

 

According to Turkey's High Electoral Board (YSK), voters turnout was at 87.45 percent. The win for the yes vote means that the country’s current parliamentary system would change to an executive presidency as soon as the next election is held in 2019. However, some of the changes are immediate.

 

Though the result was rejected by opposition who contested it on the grounds that the decision to count ballots without the official stamps was illegal and allowed for fraud.

The board "declares on behalf of the Turkish nation that the constitutional amendments have been accepted,"  while the approved changes will wholly come into force from November 2019.