AKP changes internal regulation to appoint PM Yıldırım as acting leader

ANKARA

Ahead of an extraordinary congress to be convened on May 21, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is working on to change its party regulation to appoint Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım as the acting chairman of the party, in a bid to allow him to lead an AKP parliamentary group.

AKP Deputy Chairman Hayati Yazıcı said AKP officials have convened before the extraordinary congress to be held on May 21 for a change in party regulation in order to designate an “acting leadership” post, private broadcaster HaberTürk TV reported on May 18.

Yıldırım is expected to be elected to the post.

After President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan regained membership to the AKP following the April 16 constitutional amendment lifted a regulation banning presidents to have political affiliations, the party has accelerated its efforts to harmonize the current regulation with the new “partisan presidency.”

In a short statement after the meeting attended by AKP Secretary-General Abdulhamit Gül, deputy leaders Mustafa Ataş and Fatih Şahin and Istanbul lawmaker Mehmet Doğan Kubat, Yazıcı said “there is a need for minor regulations.”

“We will make some of those regulations or transfer some of them. It is a minor change. We will regulate acting leadership procedures,” he said, adding that the deputy leaders will remain at the same positions in line with the current regulation.

Erdoğan will be the sole candidate for the AKP leadership in congress, assuring that his election to the position is certain. However, party leaders are required to convene their parties’ parliamentary groups every week, along with fulfilling executive duties concerning party procedures. 

It has recently been debated in the AKP whether the president should preside the party group every week in parliament.