Campaigning for Turkey’s crucial referendum on whether to expand presidential powers has entered its final stretch, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressing flag-waving supporters in an Istanbul neighbourhood to drum up support for his “yes” campaign.
Erdogan has long championed the idea of changing Turkey’s system of government from parliamentary to presidential. He is calling on his countrymen to vote on Sunday to approve constitutional changes that would abolish the office of the prime minister, handing all executive power to the president. The change, he says, will bring much-needed stability to Turkey.
The “yes” side is hoping a stronger presidency will ward off events like last July’s attempted military coup.
But critics argue Erdogan, in power as prime minister or president since 2003, is becoming increasingly autocratic and fear the changes will simply cement his hold on power in a system that will have few checks and balances.
They fear the changes would undermine Turkey’s democracy and threaten free speech, and say the sign of things to come is in the large number of arrests and firings of academics, journalists, civil servants and political opponents since the coup attempt.
A win could Erdogan to retain power for 12 more years under the draft constitution promoted by the AKP (Justice and Development Party). The constitutional changes would go into effect after the 2019 presidential elections.
“The most recent polls put both of these sides neck-and-neck still. It has been like that throughout the campaign,” said CBC’s Nik Köksal, reporting from Istanbul.
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