Council of State Refuses CHP’s Request of Annulment, Stay of Execution of Election Board’s Decision

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The Council of the State 10th Office has denied the main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) request regarding the referendum held on April 16 on the Constitutional Amendment Package.

CHP had applied to the Council of State to annul the decision of the Supreme Election Board (YSK) to consider the unsealed ballot papers valid and requested a stay of proceedings to enforce the decision.

The state-run Anadolu Agency reported that the Council of State had refused CHP's application by a majority vote. According to the news agency, the reason for the the denial of application was that "the decision of YSK was not of administrative quality and therefore there was no need to render a verdict regarding the application".

The request for a stay of proceedings to execute the contested decision has also been denied.

Yesterday (April 24), YSK had also denied the CHP's request to not announce official referendum results until the Council of the State passed a ruling on the contested results of the referendum.

What happened?

The referendum on the Constitutional Amendment Package was held on April 2016.

According to the non-official results, the ratio of the "Yes" votes is 51.18%, "No" votes is 48.82% in the constitutional amendment referendum. 24,325,817 electors voted "Yes", 23,201,726 electors voted "No". The voter turnout is 85.46%.

YSK's decision on the day of the referendum to consider the unsealed ballot papers valid sparked debates.

CHP Deputy Group Chair Bülent Tezcan applied to YSK on April 17 in request of the annulment of the referendum results and noted that they would also apply to the European Court of Human Right (ECtHR) after the Constitutional Court.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Vatan Party and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) applied to the YSK to annul the referendum.

The election board denied all three applications.

CHP's attorney Atilla Kart stated on April 21 "as the voting still continued, we applied to [...] the Council of the State".

Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdağ in his statement on April 22 said "No appeal can be lodged to any court/office including the Council of the State or the Constitutional Court against the decisions of the YSK".

Professor of constitutional law, İbrahim Kabaoğlu in an interview with bianet stated that YSK's decision could be challenged before the Constitutional Court and the referendum process before the ECtHR. (HK/DG)