The decision, taken at a meeting of the National Security Council (MGK) chaired by Erdogan, to recommend its extension comes two days before the emergency was due to end and a day after Turkish voters approved constitutional changes boosting Erdogan's powers. The OSCE also said the vote did not meet standards set by the Council of Europe.
Turkey is also seeking to join the European Union, which has made clear that any restoration of the death penalty would scupper its accession hopes. "We'll continue on our path. Talk to the hand". Support for "Yes" dominated campaign coverage, and the arrests of journalists and closure of media outlets silenced other views, the monitors said.
[Sadi Guven, the head of Turkey's high electoral board, or YSK] said the YSK had made a decision to consider unstamped ballots as valid unless they were proved to be fraudulent after a high number of complaints-including one from the ruling AK Party-that its officials had failed to stamp some ballot papers.
"The legal framework, which is focused on elections, remained inadequate for the holding of a genuinely democratic referendum", the monitors said in a joint statement.
In response, Turkey's Foreign Ministry labelled the comments "prejudiced" and "unacceptable".
Legitimacy of Turkish vote questioned by European observers
Erdogan has lashed back at the OSCE global monitors' initial findings, telling them to "know their place", Reuters reports. The new system takes effect at the next election, now slated for November 2019.
Chris Cummins: "So, we now have a situation with more powers heading to the office of president, but what about the opposition in Turkey, what's its future?"
Speaking of Turkey's fight against terror, Erdoğan said Turkey will carry out as many operations as necessary in the fight against terror and that Operation Euphrates Shield will certainly not be the last. He will not only hold all executive power but head the ruling AK party and decide who it nominates as legislators, hire and fire judges and prosecutors and presumably become Turkey's new sultan. Without the stamp, authorities can't be sure those ballots aren't fraudulent.
The changes could keep him in power until 2029 or beyond, making him easily the most important figure in Turkish history since state founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk built a modern nation from the ashes of the Ottoman empire after World War One. German integration commissioner Aydan Ozoguz warned against criticising Turks living in Germany across the board over how they voted, telling regional newspaper Saarbruecker Zeitung that only around 14 percent of all German Turks living in Germany had voted "Yes" and added that most migrants had not voted.
He clashed with European leaders during the campaign over cancelled rallies planned in Europe, accusing German and Dutch leaders of "Nazi practices".
But Erdemir, a senior fellow at Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted that Erdogan was still unable to muster more than 51 percent of the vote, despite the advantages of the "Yes" campaign plus the imprisonment of high-profile "No" campaigners.
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