Turkey’s premier warns opposition against street protests

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim talks to the media in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday. (Reuters)

ISTANBUL: Turkey’s opposition parties have the right to file objections to the outcome of a recent referendum on expanding presidential powers, the prime minister said Wednesday, but he warned that calling for street protests was unacceptable.
Binali Yildirim said the electoral board would rule on the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s request for the referendum’s annulment. Opposition parties have complained of a series of irregularities, particularly an electoral board decision to accept ballots without official stamps, as required by Turkish law.
Yildirim said “the path to seek rights” should be limited to legal objections.
“Calling people to the street is wrong and is outside the line of legitimacy,” Yildirim said, adding that “we expect the main opposition party’s leader to act more responsibly.”
Thousands have protested in Istanbul and Ankara since Sunday’s referendum, which has set into motion the transformation of Turkey’s system of government from a parliamentary to a presidential one.
Unofficial results show a narrow win for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “yes” campaign, which won 51.4 percent of the vote.
“The main opposition party not recognizing the results is not an acceptable thing,” Yildirim said.
Electoral board head Sadi Guven said the objections would be evaluated Wednesday.
The Istanbul Bar Association announced it had filed a criminal complaint Wednesday against Guven for “wrongful conduct” and “altering the result of the election.”
A prosecutor will now consider whether to press charges against Guven.
International election monitors, including from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), also noted a series of irregularities, and said the decision to accept as valid ballots without official stamps undermined safeguards against fraud and was contrary to Turkish law.
Germany also expressed concern.
“The German government takes the report by the OSCE and the Council of Europe very seriously, and we expect Turkey to do so,” government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer told reporters in Berlin. “We will follow closely how Turkey behaves on this.”
The US response has been different, with President Donald Trump calling Erdogan shortly after the referendum to congratulate him on his win.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Erdogan and Trump would meet in person next month, before a NATO Summit. Cavusoglu said that he and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would finalize the date according to the two presidents’ schedules.