UN observers issue last-minute warning against Turkish referendum

UN Human Rights Observers on Thursday issued a last-minute warning against Turkish referendum, saying handing more powers to the  president could further restrict freedom in the country.

Turkish citizens will head to the polls on Sunday to vote on a new draft constitution which could dramatically increase the powers of President Recep Erdogan.

If voters approve the constitutional reforms on Sunday, Erdogan would get greater powers to influence politics and justice, including the right to declare a state of emergency by himself.

The observers in a statement said given the arbitrary and sweeping nature of the emergency decrees issued since July 2016, there is serious concern that such powers might be used in ways that exacerbate the existing major violations of economic, social and cultural rights.

They also said the state of emergency that was declared after the failed coup in Turkey in July had led to the dismissal of up to 134,000 civil servants and the closure of 1,000 schools and 15 universities.

UN freedom of speech observer David Kaye and Maina Kiai, UN observer for freedom of assembly said: “in addition, the closure of 200 media outlets had undermined an informed debate on the constitution.’’

Also, Michael Link, election observation chief at the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said: “many pro-government media portray the “No”-supporters as enemies, manipulators and conspirators.”

NAN reports that a Polling company “Konda” predicted that majority of Turks will vote “Yes” in Sunday’s referendum on changing the constitution to grant Erdogan sweeping new powers.

Konda said the number of “yes” voters stood at 51.5 per cent, but said its survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 per cent.

“When this forecast is considered within the survey’s margin of error, a final judgement might be misleading,” Konda said in a statement.

Its survey, carried out face-to-face with 3,462 people in 30 provinces on April 7 to April 9, showed turnout for the vote would be around 90 percent.

It said the level of undecided voters had fallen to 9 percent from more than 20 percent in January and there was no evidence to indicate their preference..

Also, a survey by pollster Gezici put support for the constitutional change at 51.3 per cent, with “no” votes at 48.7 per cent after the distribution of undecided voters.

The poll was carried out face-to-face with some 1,400 people in 10 provinces from April 8 to April 9.

In its previous survey a week earlier it put the “yes” vote at 53.3 per cent.