​Attention shifts from legitimacy to hawkish policies

TURKEY - In Brief 18 Apr 2017 by Atilla Yesilada

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CHP, HDP and at least two of the dissidents of nationalist MHP are lodging complaints about voting irregularities with the High Election Board (HEB). I hear a torrent of allegations about voter intimidation and wholesale theft or doctoring of votes, of which one sample is linked here but I’m unable to verify them. My primary reference concerning the fairness of referendum remains the OSCE monitors who didn’t detect cheating, but issued a generally negative commentary. Here is the key sentence: “The SBE (High Election Board) issued instructions late in the day that significantly changed the ballot validity criteria, undermining an important safeguard and contradicting the law”. My secondary reference is Turkish left-leaning but impartial NGO “Oy ve Ötesi” ([Your]Vote and beyond), which also criticized the voting procedures and asked the nation not to recognize the outcome pending its own verification process. All this being said, my job is not truth discovery and pleading for fairness. Is there any danger to political stability from these contests to the results? With Trump calling Erdogan to congratulate, the White House is on board.EU is grumbling collectively and individually, but there is no sign there is an attempt to discredit the results.I have a strong conviction that the appeals by the opposition to HEB and subsequently to Constitutional Court will fall on deaf ears. Yet one threat is emerging. On Monday, small groups (numbers in low thousands) marched in dozens of cities to protest the heist of national will. There were 31 detentions. If CHP, HDP and MHP’s dissidents continue their protest despite the rejection of their appeals by the judiciary and manage to o...