YSK President: 'We Did Not Change the Rules of The Game During Match'

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The President of the Supreme Election Board Sadi Güven has announced that the result of the Referendum was in favor of the Constitutional Amendment Draft and that the official results would be announced in 11-12 days.

Noting that the board had decided to consider the unsealed ballots valid upon request by an official from the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Güven added that the seals supposed to read "Choice" to impressed on either the YES or NO section of the ballot paper but instead said "Yes" were considered valid as well.

Upon being asked yesterday (April 16) by a journalist about the statement of the Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu that "the YSK had changed the rules of the game during the match", Güven responded:

"This is not a decision taken by YSK. This decision was taken in order to not block our voters' constitutional right to vote", and added that "the unsealed votes would be considered valid unless it was proven that the ballot paper was brought from outside".

"After the voting had started, in certain YSK boards, seals reading 'Yes' were handed out instead of 'Choice', and they made the voters use those seals", Güven said and noted:

"[These votes] were considered valid on the grounds that using seals different from the ones required by the law was not qualified to influence the will of the voters".

"According to the indefinite results, there are 1,252,000 votes difference between "Yes" and "No" as of 11 p.m. [April 16]. There are 594,000 more votes to be counted.

"The result of the referendum is 'Yes'. The absolute results will be announced in 11-12 days at the latest after the objections have been processed". (ÇT/DG)

* Photograph: Anadolu Agency (AA)