[JURIST] Preliminary results show that a majority of Turkish voters have backed constitutional reforms put to a nationwide referendum [JURIST report] Sunday. About half of the votes have been tallied and 72 percent of ballots have been in favor of the constitutional reform package [Reuters report], which includes reducing the maximum parliamentary term from five years to four; requiring a legislative voting quorum of one-third of Turkish MPs; reducing the presidential term from seven to five years and providing for the possibility of a second presidential term, and - most importantly - changing the presidential election process to a popular vote. Despite the government's appeal for a high turnout, Turkish news outlets have reported that voters are complaining of insufficient information about the reforms [BIA report]. Reuters has more.

There was some controversy over whether the proposed presidential election reform would retroactively require parliamentary-selected Turkish President Abdullah Gul [BBC profile] to submit himself to a popular vote or whether it would only affect future elections. Last week, parliament amended the reform bill to clarify that it would not apply to Gul's presidency. In response, Electoral Council President Muammer Aydin [official profile, in Turkish] indicated that the Council might delay or cancel the referendum because 20,000 absentee ballots had already been received using the original text, but the Council ultimately decided that too few votes had been cast to affect the outcome of the referendum, and so voting could continue as planned.

Gul's original candidacy in April caused controversy when he ran as the sole contender for the Turkish presidency [BBC Q&A]. The Turkish Constitutional Court voided [JURIST report] an April parliamentary vote in support of Gul because a quorum of legislators did not participate, prompting calls for constitutional reform [JURIST report]. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan [official website] accused the court of hurting democracy and said he would support dissolving parliament and holding an early parliamentary election to ensure that Turkey's leaders were chosen by the people rather than the courts.

The Turkish parliament subsequently backed a constitutional amendment [JURIST report] supported by the government to allow voters to directly elect the president. The bill was vetoed [JURIST report] by then-Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer [BBC profile], and then passed by parliament a second time [JURIST report] in a vote marred by complaints of balloting violations. The ruling AKP party then sought to hold a national referendum [JURIST report] on the issue; Sezer later blocked the referendum [JURIST reports] from taking place at the same time as parliamentary elections [BBC Q&A] in July. The Constitutional Court ultimately ruled that the referendum could proceed [JURIST report].

[JURIST] A special FBI task force is reworking cases against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed [BBC profile] and the other so-called "high-value" Guantanamo Bay detainees [profiles, PDF] over concerns that information and confessions previously obtained by the CIA may be inadmissible in court, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. According to a source for the Times, the task force was formed as long as two years ago to re-investigate the cases in case the Guantanamo Bay military commission system is ruled unconstitutional and the suspected terrorists must be tried in federal court. Officials feared that even if the previously obtained evidence was allowed, the CIA's interrogation techniques [JURIST news archive] would damage the credibility of the evidence, or shift the focus of the trail towards the agency instead of the suspects. As a result of the new investigations, federal law officials now believe they have gathered enough admissible evidence against the suspects, telling the Times "We've redone everything, and everything is fine."

Mohammed and the "high value" detainees [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] have been determined to be "enemy combatants" by Guantanamo Combatant Status Review Tribunals, but none have yet been charged under the 2006 Military Commissions Act [PDF text]. Congress enacted the Military Commissions Act after the US Supreme Court's rejected presidentially-established military commissions as unconstitutional. The Los Angeles Times has more.

[JURIST] Citizens of Kyrgyzstan voted Sunday in a constitutional referendum [JURIST report] proposed by Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev [BBC profile] last month. The proposed amendments [RFE/RL report] to the Kyrgyz constitution [constitutional materials, in Kyrgyz] include increasing the number of seats in parliament from 75 to 90 and changing the election of parliament members from a direct election to a proportional. Though Bakiyev has backed the proposed changes [press release, in Kyrgyz], critics have said that the changes would hurt smaller parties and independent politicians in Kyrgyzstan [JURIST news archive] and are designed to bolster Bakiyev's own position. The Kyrgyz Central Elections Commission [official website] said Sunday that the referendum was valid [press release, in Kyrgyz; Itar-Tass report], with some 62 percent of eligible voters turning out. Local organizations including Interbilim and the Coalition For Democracy and Civil Society reported some ballot stuffing near the capital.

Kyrgyzstan has been in political turmoil, with the Kyrgyz constitution being amended numerous times, since former president Askar Akayev [BBC profile] was ousted [JURIST report] during the so-called Tulip Revolution [Wikipedia backgrounder] of 2005. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice has asked the US District Court for the Northern District of California to dismiss [ACLU press release] a lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan [corporate website] on the grounds that the case would disclose classified information regarding the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) [official website] extraordinary rendition [JURIST archive] program. Jeppeson Dataplan, a subsidiary of Boeing [corporate website], is being sued by five individuals, Binyam Muhammad, Abou Elkassim Britel, Ahmed Agiza, Bisher al-Rawi, and Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, over the company's role in the extraordinary rendition program. The government's assertion of the state secrets privilege, which allows the US government to halt litigation on national security grounds, in its Friday filing is similar to arguments made in other national security cases. Reuters has more.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] in May, alleging that Jeppesen Dataplan knowingly supported direct flights to secret CIA prisons, facilitating the torture and mistreatment of US detainees. The ACLU alleges that Jeppesen played a key role in the extraordinary rendition flights by providing a number of vital services including itinerary, route, weather, and fuel planning, as well as obtaining over-flight and landing permits from foreign governments. The ACLU was originally representing three of the five: Muhammad, currently being detained at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], Elkassim Britel, currently in a Moroccan prison, and Agiza, currently in an Egyptian prison. The two additional plaintiffs, who have alleged they were kidnapped by the CIA and tortured in Afghanistan, joined the lawsuit [JURIST report] in August. Al-Rawi was held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly five years before being released [JURIST report] to the United Kingdom, where he holds residency.