Turkey to vote on Erdogan's power today

Turkey's top politicians yesterday made a final effort to sway undecided voters in a frenetic end to a bitterly-contested campaign in the referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers.

Campaigning must end at 1500 GMT but both the 'Yes' and 'No' camps were squeezing in a flurry of rallies as the clock ticked down to today's landmark poll.

Analysts see the poll as a historic choice on the direction of the Nato member which will shape its future political system and determine relations with the West.

If passed, the new presidential system will implement the most radical political shake-up since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, dispensing with the office of the prime minister and centralising the entire executive bureaucracy under the presidency.

Erdogan in a late night interview with TRT state television confidently predicted victory, saying surveys showed a 'Yes' vote of 55-60 percent.

Opinion polls have predicted drastically different outcomes and victories for both sides. But the ruling party and presidency are widely believed to conduct their own confidential polling.

The opposition has cried foul that the referendum has been conducted on unfair terms, with 'Yes' posters ubiquitous on the streets and opposition voices squeezed from the media.

The campaign, however, has not been plain sailing for Erdogan, and some heavyweight figures within the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been conspicuously silent on the new system.