constitutional referendum

The July 1st referendum, or election, regarding the approval of the Russian Constitutional reform, has come and gone. It yielded interesting results, though, thank God, it yielded the right ones for the nation. Overall, a very strong majority, 77.92% of the voters approved the changes, and 21.27 opposed them. The voter turnout is understood to be moderately high by Russian standards, with some 65% of citizens voting in the extended time period made available by early voting.

With almost 50% of the votes counted, reports from the Anadolu news agency suggest that President Erdogan is looking to win the referendum on enhancing his constitutional powers by a margin of 58%-42%.
The regional breakdown of the votes corresponds with the political divisions of Turkey.  The traditionally more liberal regions along the Mediterranean coast and the Kurdish area in Turkey’s south east is voting no.  Turkey’s Anatolian heartland and Istanbul are voting overwhelmingly yes.