Early parliamentary elections may take place in Turkey. The statement was made by Cemil Ertem, Advisor to the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The elections may take place before 2019, Trend cites Cemil Ertem with reference to NTV.
At the same time Ertem recently made a statement that there was no chance for early parliamentary elections in Turkey.
"I do not see any likelihood of early Parliamentary elections,’’ he said, noting that the economic program, adopted by the Government, will be implemented despite the changes in leadership.
Recently, the deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey, Aydin Unal, expressed an opinion that the new Prime Minister and chairman of the party will not be able to receive the same level of influence as the current Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has. It is expected that Davutoglu will retire on May 22 at the next extraordinary party congress.
Political analyst Hakan Aksay told ‘Vestnik Kavkaza’ correspondent that the probability of another early parliamentary elections in Turkey is linked to the resignation of the “Justice and Development the Party" party leader Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. First of all he pointed out that a disagreement between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ahmet Davutoglu was inevitable.
"We cannot say that Davutoglu is the most reliable person in Erdogan’s circle. He was appointed to the post of Prime Minister for a different reason. Certainly, he is loyal and predictable. He also was Erdogan’s adviser for many years, but Davutoglu has his own ambitions. Some Turkish political analysts say that Erdogan made a mistake failing to notice these ambitions. These little disagreements in the approach to political issues began to annoy the President.
For example, Erdogan chose a tougher stand against some journalists and academicians, placing them under arrest. Erdogan also plans to fight the war against the Kurds as long as it takes to win, whereas Davutoglu was ready for a truce. As a result, Erdogan decided to get rid of him,’’ said the expert, adding that we should expect a weak political replacement, someone who will completely support the Turkish president.
Nevertheless, early parliamentary elections in Turkey are possible: Erdogan will need to spend some time to achieve the most favorable balance of forces in the new parliament. "He does not have enough votes right now. Due to internal disagreement the Turkey's Kurdish party will get the necessary 10%. The Nationalist Party also creates some problems. The current leadership of the party fully supports Erdogan, and he needs this process to be continued. However, there is a very strong opposition within the party and that is why the leadership might change at the next convention. Nationalists may take about 4-5% away from ‘the Justice and Development Party’,’’ the analyst said.
"However, after the actual resignation of Davutoglu some started to say that early elections are unnecessary. According to some rumors, Erdogan stated that it was pointless to hold elections once a year, as it would not bring any fundamental changes. But the Turkish political system is unstable that is why it is difficult know whether the elections will take place in 2019 or earlier,’’ he said.
"In general, the balance of political power in Turkey will not change after Davutoglu’s resignation. Probably, he was officially the second person in the state, but he did not have significant influence. <…> I think his resignation will bring significant changes neither to ‘‘the Justice and Development Party", nor even to the Turkish political system,’’ Hakan Aksay concluded.
