AKP open to early municipal elections

MANİSA - Anatolia News Agency

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) will back any opposition proposal to bring municipal elections forward to 2013 in order to avoid holding the polls in adverse winter conditions, a senior party official said yesterday.

“Rescheduling the [local] elections is possible only through a constitutional amendment. If any party in Parliament brings forward a proposal, the AK Party will not shy away, and will offer cooperation. Apart from that, we have no intention of bringing the elections forward,” AKP deputy chairman Hüseyin Tanrıverdi said in the western city of Manisa.

The polls are currently scheduled for March 2014. Tanrıverdi said there were suggestions to reschedule the elections to the autumn of 2013 because harsh winter conditions paralyze life in many areas of Turkey in March. He spoke about the death of Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu, the former head of the Great Unity Party (BBP), who perished when his helicopter crashed in snow-bound mountains while electioneering ahead of the 2009 municipal polls.