Turkey's premier calls on opposition to respect referendum

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Ignoring concerns raised by global monitoring groups, President Donald Trump called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday to congratulate him on the country's contested referendum greatly expanding presidential powers.

Worldwide observers agreed the campaign was conducted on an "unlevel playing field" and that the vote count itself was marred by procedural changes that removed key safeguards.

The statement said that the council advised extension of the state of emergency "in an attempt to provide the continuance of measures aimed at securing the rights and freedoms of citizens".

Erdogan says concentrating power in the hands of the president is vital to prevent instability.

After 51.4% of voters reportedly opted to pass the referendum, protests against have erupted in the streets of Istanbul.

Opposition parties called for the vote to be annulled because of a series of irregularities, particularly an electoral board decision to accept ballots that didn't bear official stamps, as required by Turkish law.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, delivers a speech during a rally of supporters a day after the referendum, outside the Presidential Palace, in Ankara, Turkey, Monday, April 17, 2017.

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Her ruling Conservative Party have opened up a 21-point lead over the Labour Party, according to the YouGov pollster this week. A general election would end the attempts of opposition parties and members of the House of Lords to thwart her Brexit plans.

Deputy chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), Bulent Tezcan, said "There is only one way to end the discussion about the vote's legitimacy and to put the people at ease, and that is for the Supreme Electoral Board to cancel the vote".

"My view is that we should formally suspend negotiation talks with Turkey as long as Erdogan is establishing and conducting authoritarian power", German Member of Parliament Norbert Röttgen, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

Erdogan, meanwhile, called the referendum "the most democratic election. ever seen in any Western country" and admonished the OSCE monitors to "know your place".

Austrian leaders said the European Union should end talks over Turkey's 30-year-old bid to join its ranks.

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. "What George, Hans or Helga say does not interest us", he said, using typical European names. President Erdoğan is now expected to rejoin the ruling AK Party.

The approval means the Turkish parliament will be largely sidelined, the prime minister and Cabinet posts will be abolished, and ministers will be directly appointed by the president and accountable to him.

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