Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, on Sunday accused the government of applying illegal ways to manipulate the referendum process.
Kılıçdaroğlu continued his party’s “no” campaign Sunday against the September referendum, in which the country will vote on government-backed constitutional amendments.
On the third day of a four-day trip, which includes Eskişehir, Bilecik, Bursa and Yalova, Kılıçdaroğlu visited districts of Bursa on Sunday.
Responding to questions from journalists in Cumalıkızık village of Bursa, Kılıçdaroğlu said Turkey would get rid of the “wire-tapper government” when the CHP came to power.
Asked to comment on the allegations that the CHP will make alliance with the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, in the next elections, Kılıçdaroğlu said the CHP had no such a plan and that their target was to govern the country alone.
Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, claimed the CHP and AKP would form a coalition government after the 2011 elections in accordance with the “overseas plans.”
Touching on the referendum, Kılıçdaroğlu said the AKP already began to use illegal posters showing Turkey’s celebrities saying “yes” in the referendum at a very early stage of the process. It is a sign of fear, according to him.
“If the Sabancı family didn’t object to the posters, the billboard would remain. If a government doesn’t have concerns about a referendum, it doesn’t let such illegal initiatives,” Kılıçdaroğlu told reporters on Sunday.
Kılıçdaroğlu also said the government remained silent in the face of such an attempt instead of investigating the incident.
‘CHP to remove YÖK, immunity.’
Some of Ankara’s billboards were decorated last week with posters showing some of Turkey’s celebrities indicating they will say “yes” to the reform package. The poster showed the Sabancı Thought Association as the sponsor of the initiative. The posters were removed when owners of the Sabancı Holding announced that it didn’t involve in such an attempt and that the association was not part of the holding.
Moving later to Bursa’s Mudanya district where he addressed a crowd, Kılıçdaroğlu accused the government of disregarding democracy and triggering discrimination during its eight-year reign.
Kılıçdaroğlu also said they would initiate more comprehensive constitutional amendments if elected. The CHP would also eradicate the Higher Education Board, or YÖK, and the remove parliamentary immunity.
Kılıçdaroğlu said the reform package was prepared in the kitchen of the AKP without consensus and that the public would give the most appropriate response to the package by voting “no.”
“We will bring such regulation that there will not be a ‘wiretapper government’ any longer. There are professors, scientists in Turkey. Why don’t they speak? Why don’t they express their own thoughts freely?” Kılıçdaroğlu asked.
“Because they are wiretapped and they fear of expressing themselves. This situation will end when the CHP came to power.”
