Spotlight: Thorny road ahead for Turkey to embark on presidential system

After a tight win in referendum, Turkey's "yes" camp has not received strong support for radical governance system change and narrowed difference on polls will not allow Erdogan move freely in subsequent political steps.

Unofficial results showed a narrow 51.4 percent lead in the referendum for constitutional amendments that will change governing system from parliamentary system to presidential one.

Total votes of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), backers of the charter change camp, decreased more than 10 percent compared to 1 November 2015 parliamentary elections.

The sum of total votes of the AKP and MHP in 2015 parliamentary elections was around 63 percent, around 12 percent more than the April 16 referendum.

In his earlier remarks on April 14, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that he had predicted a far clearer victory as their polls showed a 55-60 percent support to the amendments.

Both Erdogan and the AKP officials were pressing for "at least 55 percent" support for the changes in order to be as comfortable as possible in implementing presidential powers, and in securing future presidential and parliamentary elections which require at least 50 percent of the votes, according to Hurriyet Daily News columnist Serkan Demirtas.

"However, the fact that these changes could only be approved by a small margin means the opposition and civil society will be much more vocal in challenging governmental actions," he said.

"The majority of our people said 'yes' to the presidential administration system. But the number of those who say 'no' is high in considerable amount. This should be well examined," Ilnur Cevik, adviser to the presidency said in his column in daily Yeni Birlik.

"It is observed that the AK Party has been weak in some places especially in Ankara and Istanbul and the votes are given to Erdogan's sake," the president's adviser stated.

The MHP electorate, which was already divided due to internal party conflicts, did not lend strong support to the charter change despite its leader Devlet Bahceli personally backed the amendments.

MHP grassroots have not backed the amendments and "No" votes were majority in polling districts where the nationalist party is traditionally strong, Cevik said.

"On the contrary, we see that the support of the Kurdish votes is part of this 'yes' victory," he added.

The predominantly Kurdish provinces of eastern and southeastern Anatolia, voted overwhelmingly against the constitutional amendments. Yet, the ruling party has increased its Kurdish votes nearly 10 percent compared to the results of the Nov. 1 elections.

In his initial speech after the referendum on April 16, Erdogan said they have noticed some 10 percent increase in Kurdish votes.

Three main cities, including the capital Ankara, western Izmir and the largest city Istanbul, looked set to vote "No, while 'Yes' prevailed in Anatolia, conservative and religious heartland of Turkey.

A belt along the Aegean and Mediterranean regions strongly rejected the proposed executive presidency.

Less educated class and rural regions votes "yes" while urbanized class and more educated electorate voted against the presidential system according to initial assessments within the AKP, journalist Hande Firat said on CnnTurk broadcaster on Ap. Endit