MHP refuses to lend support to government-led judicial bill

ANKARA

Criticizing the government-led amendment aimed at restructuring the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader has implied that his party will not give its support to such an amendment. MHP head Devlet Bahçeli said the government should instead seek a constitutional amendment with only the support of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). 

“The prime minister should respect the Constitution that was agreed by the people in a ballot, and he should ask people about his planned amendment if he has courage and loyalty to the national will,” Bahçeli said on Jan. 21, addressing his party’s lawmakers at Parliament. 

The government aims for an amendment which is unconstitutional and which seeks a design for the political ambitions of the government, he said, stressing that the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) ignored articles 138 and 159 of the Turkish Constitution and the independence of judges and prosecutors. 

Recalling that the current HSYK legislation was adopted in a constitutional referendum in 2010, Bahçeli claimed that the government’s aim in the latest amendment came “under the fog of bribery and corruption and ignores the national will.”