Constitutional referendum in Turkey in 2007

2007 referendum

 %

70

60

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

68.95

31.05

Yes

No

In Turkey one was on October 21, 2007 referendum on fundamental changes to the Turkish Constitution held. The constitutional amendments were presented by the parliamentarians of the ruling AKP . They were accepted by the voters with an absolute majority, they voted with 68.95 percent. The turnout was 67.51 percent.

Effects

In total, Act No. 5678 amended five articles of the Constitution (and added two transitional articles):

items	modification
77 para. 1	The legislative period was reduced from five to four years.
79 para. 2, para. 6	The High Electoral Council also has the task of approving election records of the election of the President of the Republic. The general management and control of business in the election of the President is also based on the regulations that apply to the election of members.
96 para. 1	The Grand National Assembly meets with at least a third of the total number of its members. Unless otherwise stipulated in the constitution, it decides with a simple majority of the members present, whereby the number of votes sufficient for a resolution must not be less than a quarter plus one of the total number of members.
101	The President of the Republic is no longer elected by the Grand National Assembly but by the people. The president's term of office was reduced from seven to five years. A re-election that was previously excluded in accordance with Article 101, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution is now possible, so that a term of office of a maximum of ten ( beş artı beş , “five plus five”) years can result.
102	Changes to the popular election of the President of the Republic.

Results

In green the provinces are mostly in favor of the changes; in red the provinces in which a majority voted against

The outcome of the referendum was still uncertain immediately before election day. While the government presented poll results that assumed an approval rate of 85%, the opponents were slightly ahead in other polls. Of the registered 42,690,252 voters, 67.51% went to the vote. In the end, 68.95% of the votes cast were in favor of constitutional reform. The constitutional amendments were adopted in around nine tenths of all 81 provinces. Provinces that voted no are concentrated along the Mediterranean coast and Thrace.

vote	be right	Share of votes
Yes	19,422,714	68.95%
No	8,744,947	31.05%

References and comments

1. ↑ Law No. 5678 of May 31, 2007 on the amendment of certain articles of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, RG No. 26554 of June 16, 2007 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically defective Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ).  
2. ↑ ^{a b c Minutes of the} results of the referendum on the constitutional amendment (PDF file, 37 KB).

Web links

• Results of the referendum 2007 (Turkish)