Turkish court rejects opposition's referendum appeal

By Ferdi Turkten and Aylin Sirikli

ANKARA (AA) - The Council of State -- the highest administrative court -- in Ankara rejected on Tuesday the main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) appeal to annul the Supreme Election Board's (YSK) decision on the country's recent referendum results.

The CHP challenged the results of the April 16 referendum, in particular the YSK's decision to count ballot papers unverified by local electoral boards.

The party had first submitted a petition to cancel the referendum result; however, the election board rejected all such appeals against the referendum by the CHP, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the Patriotic Party (Vatan Party).

The CHP then approached the Council of State, urging the court to suspend the official referendum results until the legal process ends.

However, the court also rejected the appeal and backed the law that no appeals could be made against YSK decisions at any court.

The CHP had said it would employ all legal channels to challenge the result, including at Turkey’s Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

Voters went to the polls last week to decide whether to approve changes to the country’s constitution, which would bring shift from current parliamentarian system to a presidential one.

Unofficial results show the Yes campaign won with 51.41 percent, while the No vote stood at 48.59 percent. Voter turnout was 85.46 percent.

The official results are due to be released by the election board at the beginning of May.