April 14, 2017•Update: April 16, 2017
ANKARA
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday rejected claims of a regime change after Sunday's referendum on constitutional amendments.
"In my 40 years of political life, I have had no such claims to change the regime," Erdogan said in an interview aired live on TRT.
He said the debates on regime change in the country ended in when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk established modern Turkey as a republic.
"But this [government] system is not responding to [current] needs," Erdogan said.
Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has claimed during its 'No' campaign that the constitutional change would lead to a regime change.
Erdogan said that almost all polls predicted a 'Yes' victory.
"Some predict the rate to be below 55 percent while others say it is likely to be between 55-60 percent," he said.
Sunday’s referendum in Turkey addresses a host of constitutional reforms that would hand wide-ranging executive powers to the president.
The post of prime minister would be abolished and the president would also be allowed to retain ties to a political party.
Other changes include the minimum age of parliamentary candidates reduced to 18 and the number of deputies increased to 600.
Also, simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections for a five-year term would be held in November 2019 under the new Constitution.
