| Turkey’s main opposition CHP leader Kilicdaroglu walks during the 19th day of a protest, dubbed “justice march”, against the detention of the party’s lawmaker Enis Berberoglu, near Kocaeli |
Turkey’s main opposition leader launched a European court appeal on Tuesday over an April vote that granted President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping powers, stepping up his challenge to the government as he leads a 425 kilometre protest march.
Before starting the 20th day of his march, CHP head Kemal Kilicdaroglu signed an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights against the decision by Turkey’s YSK election board to accept unstamped ballots in the April 16 referendum.
“The YSK decision made the referendum illegitimate. We are applying to the European Court of Human Rights,” Kilicdaroglu told reporters in the city of Izmit, around 100km east of central Istanbul.
Kilicdaroglu, 68, set out for Istanbul from the capital Ankara on June 15 after fellow CHP deputy Enis Berberoglu was jailed for 25 years for spying, becoming the first MP from the party to be imprisoned in a government crackdown following a failed coup in July 2016.
April’s referendum, held under a state of emergency, gave a narrow 51.4 per cent approval for constitutional changes that sharply widened Erdogan’s presidential authority.
Opposition parties have said the poll was deeply flawed, while European election observers said the decision of the High Electoral Board (YSK) to allow unstamped ballot papers to be counted had removed a main safeguard against voting fraud.