Will Turkey's Referendum Mark the End of Democracy and the Birth of "Erdoğanistan"?
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Erdogan, who arrived in Ankara earlier in the day to attend meetings of the country's national security council and cabinet, also criticised poll monitors from the the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) who on Monday accused Turkey of conducting the referendum on an "unlevel playing field".
The Turkish opposition was particularly incensed by a decision by the YSK to allow voting papers without official stamps to be counted, which they said opened the way for fraud.
"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.
The president survived a coup attempt a year ago and responded with a crackdown, jailing 47,000 people and sacking or suspending more than 120,000 from government jobs such as schoolteachers, soldiers, police, judges or other professionals.
Erdogan has lashed back at the OSCE global monitors' initial findings, telling them to "know their place", Reuters reports.
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Erdogan argues that concentration of power is needed to prevent instability, but opponents accuse him of leading a drive towards one-man rule in Turkey. 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.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, waves to supporters in Istanbul, on Sunday, April 16, 2017. "Those who attempt to celebrate this result mock the people", the party stated. "They have caused the referendum's legitimacy to be questioned", said CHP chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Official results are expected within 12 days.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, claimed the OSCE's findings were politically motivated and that Turkey may hold a referendum to decide whether to continue its push for European Union membership. The powers granted could potentially keep the Turkish president in office until 2029, scrap the job of prime minister and allow the president to directly appoint top public officials.
The new system takes effect at the next election, now slated for November 2019.
Turkey's three largest cities - Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir - all voted "No" although "Yes" prevailed in Erdogan's Anatolian heartland.
On Europe's threats that it may halt negotiations on Turkey joining the European Union if the penalty is restored, he remarked: "The EU should deal with Turkey out of partnership and not focus exclusively on benefiting from it in the refugee file".
Mr Erdogan has insisted the changes are needed to amend the current constitution, which was written by generals following a 1980 military coup, to confront security and political challenges in Turkey and avoid past fragile coalition governments.



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