Erdogan's bid for sweeping power set for vote today

Turkish voters will decide on Sunday whether to endorse President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bid to centralise power in his hands in the most radical shake-up since the republic was formed 93 years ago.

Opinion polls this month showed the referendum was too close to predict after two months of campaigning that divided Turks and damaged ties with the European Union, where some states slammed the vote as an affront to democracy.

“Whatever the outcome, there won’t be a respite from the growing authoritarianism” of Erdogan, said Wolfango Piccoli, the London-based co-president of political risk advisory Teneo Intelligence.

It’s been just nine months since Erdogan beat off a military coup. Now, Turkey’s leader of 14 years is on the cusp of a victory that would make him one of the G-20’s most powerful elected heads of state. Constitutional amendments being considered would give him the authority to appoint ministers and judges at his discretion and call elections at any time.

He’s been setting the stage for this vote since winning the presidency in 2014 and turning what was a largely ceremonial role into a nexus of authority. In the process, he quashed protests and muzzled critics in the media, undermining civil liberties in the majority-Muslim nation. Under a state of emergency imposed in the wake of the coup attempt, Erdogan fired more than 100,000 people and jailed 40,000.

In recent years, Erdogan’s clampdown and attempts to meddle in central bank policy have alienated foreign investors, with the lira losing a fifth of its value since the botched coup alone.