A constitutional referendum was held in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

on 6 September 1987 to amend temporary article 4 of

the constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

, which had forbidden the leaders of banned parties (a total of 242 people) from taking part in politics for ten years. The governing Motherland Party (ANAP) agreed to the referendum after a compromise was struck with opposition parties regarding constitutional changes. ANAP campaigned for the "No" vote, while most opposition parties campaigned for the "Yes" vote. The changes were narrowly approved by 50.2% of voters, with a 93.6% turnout.

Campaign

Temporary article 4 of the Turkish constitution was introduced following the 12 September 1980 coup d'état, which saw the outlawing of several political parties. The article forbade 242 peoplethe leaders of the banned political partiesfrom being involved in politics for ten years. The referendum was the result of negotiations between the governing Motherland Party (ANAP) and opposition parties. In the referendum, "Yes" voters used the color blue as their symbol, while "No" voters used orange. The "Blue Color Yes" ('' Turkish:'' Mavi Renkli Evet) campaign was led by four party leaders who had been restricted by temporary article 4, from the

True Path Party The True Path Party (, DYP) was a centre-right political party in Turkey, active from 1983 to 2007. For most of its history, the party's central figure was Süleyman Demirel, a former Prime Minister of Turkey who previously led the Justice Part ...

, Democratic Left Party, Nationalist Task Party, and

Welfare Party The Welfare Party (, RP) was an Islamist political party in Turkey. It was founded by Ali Türkmen, Ahmet Tekdal, and Necmettin Erbakan in Ankara in 1983 as heir to two earlier parties, National Order Party (MNP) and National Salvation Party ...

. These parties supported the "Yes" campaign, as did the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), despite it not having had any leaders who were affected by temporary article 4. SHP leader

Erdal İnönü Erdal İnönü (6 June 1926 – 31 October 2007) was a Turkish theoretical physicist and politician who served as the interim prime minister of Turkey between 16 May and 25 June 1993. He also served as the deputy prime minister of Turkey from 1 ...

organized countrywide rallies for the "Yes" campaign.

Party positions

Results

The referendum was narrowly approved by 50.2% of voters. Turnout was 93.6%, with 24,436,821 votes cast.

References

External links

Results of the referendum
{{Turkish elections Constitutional referendums in Turkey

Constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...