CHP outlines 29 principles for return to parliamentary system
GAMZE KOLCU- ANKARA
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has outlined 29 principles for a return to the parliamentary system if it comes to power following the 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections.
A 75-page report on the strengthened parliamentary system was discussed at the Party Assembly under the leadership of CHP chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on June 30. Turkey shifted its administrative system into an executive presidential system after April 2017 referendum, and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected as the president in the 2018 elections. The opposition bloc, the Nation Alliance, vows to end this system and reintroduce the parliamentary system.
The CHP’s principles include an impartial president, an effective implementation of separation of powers, an impartial and independent judiciary and strong parliament, which enables the members of parliament to check and control the executive.
According to the report, the CHP aims to pass a law on political ethics and to increase transparency in public tenders and all other public spending. A national tax council and an enforced strategic planning body will be established, it suggests, promising to abolish the Higher Education Board (YÖK).
The new system will be based on a strong prime minister who will be elected among the members of the parliament and will ensure political stability by easing the conditions to form a government but while complicating to bring it down. The revenues of local governments will be increased and appointing trustees to the municipalities will be terminated, it suggests.
The Central Bank and all other autonomous institutions will enjoy full independence while performing their duties, and the functions of the Constitutional Court will be revised, the CHP stated, promising to replace the Judges and Prosecutors’ Council with Supreme Justice Board.
The CHP will discuss its principles with other opposition parties who are also drafting their own system.