Erdoğan eyes fourth term as party leader

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signals readiness for paving the way for a new round of deputyship for MPs from the ruling party as long as they take a term off. AA photo

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday signaled his intention to seek a fourth term as party leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), while also paving the way to more terms for deputies from the party who have already served three terms.

“In accordance with the promise we had made, we were elected for the third and last time in the June 12 [2011] parliamentary elections,” Erdoğan said at an AKP provincial meeting in the central Anatolian city of Eskişehir.

“Everyone has the chance to become a deputy again after taking a one-term break. This arrangement will find its place at the grand congress in Ankara on Sept. 30,” Erdoğan said, signaling a change to the party statute that currently keeps deputies who have been elected to office three times from running for Parliament a fourth time.

AKP Statue
“Likewise, we will run for the general chairmanship of the party for the fourth and last time in accordance with the promise we have given,” Erdoğan said.

“The general chair of the party is elected via secret vote by the grand congress. However, the same person can be elected as general chair for four terms at most, except for the founding chairmanship,” Article 75 of the AKP Statute says.

The statute also reads: “Mayors and deputies who run and are elected from AK Party [AKP] lists can be nominated as candidates for three terms at most.”