AKP offers to delay presidential system

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The AKP suggests that their presidential system proposal for Turkey’s new charter could eventually be drafted with red lines from opposition parties.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has offered to postpone discussions at Parliament’s Constitution Reconciliation Commission on its proposal for a presidential system to avoid obstructing the body’s work after the three opposition parties backed the continuation of the parliamentary system.

The AKP has also suggested that their presidential system proposal for Turkey’s new Constitution could eventually be drafted with red lines from opposition parties, in other words, with reservations and parentheses.

In its proposal presented to the commission on Nov. 20 as part of discussions on the “executive” section, the AKP suggested a “Turkified version of the U.S. executive system” for Turkey, preserving the unitary structure with a single Parliament and giving extraordinary authorities to the president.

Yet proposals from all three opposition parties – the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) – favor a parliamentary system.

The contradicting stances of the parties during meetings on Nov. 28 and yesterday suggested the possibility of future deadlock.

When the CHP’s Süheyl Batum expressed his concern over the situation, AKP deputy chair Mehmet Ali Şahin suggested that postponing the discussions on clauses concerning a presidential system could be a way out.

“Let’s not get stuck on this point. The presidential system proposal is not a sine qua non for us. That’s to say, we will not hinder the work of the commission due to these differences of views. Let the commission work. There are a few clauses concerning a presidential system within the legislation chapter and when the time comes to debate those clauses, we will be reviewing them with our fellow commission members from the [AKP],” Şahin said.

The commission was still discussing the issue when the Hürriyet Daily News went to print yesterday.