Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on April 16 claimed a razor-thin victory in the constitutional referendum (51.4 percent voted "yes," a margin of victory of 1,379,934 votes) to overhaul the country's political system to favor the presidency, giving him the opportunity to consolidate his power. The European powers and the U.S. State Department reacted to the result largely by admonishing Erdogan's government for the way it controlled the media and intimidated the opposition in the lead-up to the vote. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), invited by Turkey to monitor the vote, said the referendum "did not live up to Council of Europe standards." Though the OSCE could not cite specific instances of fraud, it said a decision by Turkish electoral authorities to allow unstamped ballots to be counted contradicted electoral law.