President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections will be brought forward to June 24, more than a year earlier than planned schedule , in a move aimed at accelerating the transition to a new presidential system.
Erdogan made the announcement in an address at his presidential palace after meeting Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) chief Devlet Bahceli who the day earlier had urged early elections. This could pave the way for a single-party state with few checks on the power of the president.
“As a result of consultations with Mr. Bahceli, “We have decided that elections should be held on 24 June 2018,” Erdoğan said at the presidential palace.
He also said “Our preference has been to try to hold out till the date in November 2019. However, whether it be the cross-border operation in Syria, or the historic developments in Iraq and Syria have made it so that it is paramount for Turkey to overcome uncertainty.”
The elections are especially significant as afterwards a new executive presidency — agreed in a 2017 referendum and denounced by critics as giving the president authoritarian powers — will come into force.
Some 55 million Turkish people will be eligible to vote for the 600-seat parliament, as well as for the president who will be able to use all the powers granted to the head of the nation through the controversial April 16, 2017 referendum that replaced the parliamentary system with an executive presidential model.
“Even though the president and government are working in unison, the diseases of the old system confront us at every step we take,” Erdogan said in a speech broadcast live on television.
“Developments in Syria and elsewhere have made it urgent to switch to the new executive system in order to take steps for our country’s future in a stronger way… We discussed Mr Bahceli’s call with our relevant authorities. We came to the agreement that we should approach this early election positively.”
>Juthy Saha
Snap Elections of Turkey on 24 June
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