Candidates cannot run in both polls simultaneously: AKP deputy

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy chairman on April 19 said running for parliamentary and presidential elections simultaneously is not possible.

“It is not possible to be a candidate for parliament’s membership and presidency simultaneously,” Hayati Yazıcı told reporters at the AKP headquarters in Ankara.

Yazıcı said the citizens will have to apply to the Supreme Electoral Council to nominate their candidate, referring to the constitutional article that reads: “Citizens will be able to nominate a presidential candidate provided that he/she gets at least 100,000 signatures.”

He said the electoral boards would be responsible for supervising and controlling the necessary steps for signatures and nominations.

“The Supreme Electoral Council has a software to perform it,” Yazici said, adding that the citizens would apply to provincial or district election boards.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on April 18 a plan to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24, over a year before they had been scheduled in November 2019.

On April 16, 2017, Turkey held a referendum on a constitutional reform in which the majority of voters pronounced themselves in favor of an 18-article bill switching from a parliamentary system to a presidential one.