Turkey votes to give more powers to Erdogan

The vote in favor of changing the executive branch was handily leading the "no" vote by 1.25 million votes, guaranteeing that it will win, although the final margin of victory will not be known until all the ballots are counted.

The head of the Supreme Electoral Board, Sadi Güven, confirmed the "yes" victory, adding that ballots not validated with the official seal will also count, a decision made late Sunday before the vote count began, and one harshly criticized by the opposition as "changing the rules in the middle of the game."

Güven said that a total of 56,147,506 ballots were cast, of which the "yes" option received 24,763,516 and the "no" option 23,511,155, thus resulting in a "yes" win by some 1.25 million votes.

He added that definitive results will be made public in 11-12 days.

Meanwhile, Erdogan said in proclaiming the "yes" victory in a speech in Istanbul that "Today, Turkey has made an historic decision ... a very serious change in our administrative system. ... It's ... easy to maintain the status quo but, thanks be to God, we've been successful. Only 18 articles (of the Constitution) are being reformed, but the changes will be very deep."