Constitutional Court dismisses motions by two referendum initiatives

The motions were rejected in two separate rulings in late December 2018. The rulings were adopted by a majority of votes with one dissenting opinion.

The two civil society groups asked the court to declare the verification of signatures gathered for their referendum petitions null and void.

The Truth about the Istanbul Convention had launched a signature gathering campaign for a referendum to abrogate the ratification of the Istanbul Convention by Parliament, while the People Decide initiative had called for a referendum to change the electoral system.

The Public Administration Ministry found that neither group had gathered enough signatures for their referendum petitions as many of the signatures were declared invalid.