Referendum poll puts Turkey on course for full democracy

• Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan casts his vote at a polling station in Istanbul yesterday. Picture: AFP

With 99 per cent of the vote counted, 58 per cent had cast ballots in favour of the constitutional amendments, state-run TRT television said. About 42 per cent voted "no", heeding opposition claims that the reforms would shackle the independence of the courts.

The referendum on 26 amendments to a constitution that was crafted after a 1980 military coup had become a battleground between the Islamic-oriented government and traditional power elites that believe Turkey's secular principles are under threat. It amounted to a vote of confidence in the ruling Justice and Development Party ahead of elections next year.

"We have crossed a historic threshold towards advanced democracy and the supremacy of law," prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a nationally televised speech at his party headquarters in Istanbul.

"The regime of tutelage in Turkey will now come to an end. The mentality will be so that those enthusiastic for military coups will see their enthusiasms stuck inside them."

Street clashes marred voting at several polling stations in provinces with large Kurdish populations. A Kurdish party had urged supporters to boycott the ballot, arguing that the proposed changes would not advance the rights of the ethnic minority.

In Ankara, the Turkish capital, President Abdullah Gul appealed for harmony. "From tomorrow onwards, Turkey needs to unite as one, and look ahead," he said after voting. "The public has the final say in democracies. I would like to remind everyone to welcome the result with respect and maturity."

Political sparring, however, was unlikely to subside. Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Action Party, a hardline nationalist group, warned that the changes would weaken the state and embolden Kurdish rebels who seek autonomy. He said Turkey had entered "a dark era filled with critical risks and dangers".

Mr Erdogan brushed aside concerns, saying his party now wanted to seek consensus for an entirely new constitution.

The party has already won two terms, delivering a measure of stability following years of coalition rule. In recent years, Turkey's economy has blossomed. The nation has grown confident on the international stage, seeking a role as mediator and improving ties with Iran and other neighbours while maintaining its alliances in the West.

About 50 million Turks, or two-thirds of the population, were eligible to vote in the referendum. Turnout was about 78 per cent.

The date evoked Turkey's traumatic past.Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of a coup that curbed years of political and street chaos, but led to widespread arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings, and Kurdish militants launched a rebellion a few years later that continues today. The military's long shadow over Turkish politics has begun to wane only in the past few years.

The civilian government says the amendments fall in line with European Union requirements for membership, partly by making the military more accountable to civilian courts and allowing civil servants to go on strike. The opposition, however, believes a provision that would give parliament more say in appointing judges masks an attempt to control the courts, which have sparred with the Erdogan camp.

The military and the court system, including the Constitutional Court, have sought to uphold the secular legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded Turkey in 1923, and the ruling Justice and Development Party has been accused of plotting to undo those principles.

The ruling party, whose reforms have won backing from the EU, says the hardline emphasis on secularism and nationalism must be updated to incorporate democratic change, including religious freedoms.

The constitutional amendments would also remove immunity from prosecution for the engineers of the 1980 coup.