Paris – The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday rejected a complaint by the main Turkish opposition party about an April referendum that greatly increased the powers of President Recep Erdogan.
The court ruled that a protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights requiring regular free parliamentary elections did not apply to referendums.
As a result it could not consider the complaint by the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
The party had argued that the Turkish Electoral Commission did not properly address alleged irregularities in the voting.
It also said that it had been the victim of unfavourable and undemocratic conditions during the referendum campaign, which took place under a state of emergency imposed after a coup attempt the previous year.
Council of Europe legal experts had warned that the constitutional amendments proposed in the referendum put Turkey at risk of degenerating into an authoritarian presidential system.
The experts also said that the state of emergency “did not provide the proper democratic setting for a vote as important as a constitutional referendum.”