According to results from state-run Anadolu Agency, in İstanbul, the "no" vote led with 51 percent against 48 percent "yes;" in Ankara, 51 percent "no" to 48 percent "yes;" and in İzmir, 68 percent "no" to 31 percent "yes."
The "yes" vote in İstanbul was at 48.65 percent in the referendum while the “no” vote was at 51.35 percent, according to the Anadolu agency.
There are 9, 387, 327 voters in İstanbul, 3, 407, 999 in Ankara and 2, 904, 169 in İzmir.
The ruling Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish acronym AKP which has previously repeatedly stated that "one who wins a majority in Istanbul wins all of Turkey," thus suffered a shock on April 16, despite carrying out an intense campaign in the country’s largest city.
When the results are compared with the outcome of the most recent Nov. 1, 2015, general election, in which the AKP won 48.72 percent of the vote in İstanbul and the MHP won 8.59 percent, totalling 57.31 percent, it can be seen that the "yes" block lost a significant portion of votes. In terms of districts, the "yes" camp suffered significant vote losses in the hard-scrabble Sultanbeyli, Sultangazi and Esenler districts, in which the AKP won a high amount of votes in the previous election.
One particularly attention grabbing result emerged from the conservative district of Üsküdar, where the AKP and the MHP won a cumulative 57.47 percent of the votes in November 2015 but where "yes" votes could only muster 46.8 percent, Hürriyet reported.
AKP, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the leadership of the ultra-nationalist MHP campaigned for a "yes" vote. Two sides of the campaign in Turkish referendum did not have equal opportunities, "yes" campaign dominated media coverage. "Yes" campaign also dominating airwaves and billboards using state resources.
In the capital city Ankara, "no" votes won 51 percent of the vote in the referendum, far below the combined AKP-MHP vote of 62.99 percent in the November 2015 election.
In İzmir, meanwhile, the "yes" camp suffered a major defeat. "No" votes won 68.76 percent of the votes in the referendum, corresponding to a 13.36 percent increase in the "no" bloc compared to the November 2015 election. The cumulative AKP-MHP "yes" camp was at 42.38 percent in İzmir in the last general election and therefore fell by 11.14 percentage points in the referendum.
SURPRISE RESULTS FOR PARTY LEADERS
From the ballot box where Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli voted, there are only 57 "yes" votes against 305 "no" votes. Bahçeli and his party MHP have been staunch supporters of the presidential constitution that would expand the President Tayyip Erdoğan's powers.
Much to the surprise of the Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, no votes are ahead of yes votes in the ballot box he voted.
