The World - News from Sept. 26, 1988

A measure to move up the date of local elections from March, 1989, to Nov. 23 was spurned by voters in Turkey, but Prime Minister Turgut Ozal vowed to remain in office despite an earlier threat that a losing vote might lead to his resignation. State television reported that, with 86% of the votes counted, 65% of the electorate voted against and 35% in favor of the constitutional amendment in a national referendum. Ozal, whose government is battling an annual inflation rate of 78%, had threatened to quit if voters overwhelmingly rejected the amendment. But he said in a televised address that the result is satisfactory because the “yes” vote is about the same as the 36% garnered by his Motherland Party in an election last year.