Number of ministries may rise up to 24 if opposition wins

ANKARA

The number of ministries, currently 17, may increase up to 24 if the opposition wins in the elections in the May polls, with the formation of some new ones, such as the Urban Planning and Disaster Management Ministry and the Informatics and Innovation Ministry, and the division of some existing ones, local media has reported.

The opposition plans to divide the Treasury and Finance Ministry into two separate ministries and to broaden the Trade Ministry’s scope and rename it as the Tradesmen and Trade Ministry, daily Milliyet said.

The paper claims the Nation Alliance also envisages to restructure the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry as the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry, the Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Ministry as the Climate, Environment and Forestry Ministry, and the Family and Social Services Ministry as the Women, Family and Children Ministry.

If the six-party alliance’s presidential candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, is elected, each party will also be represented by at least one minister in the cabinet.

The number of ministries that the parties will have will be determined proportionally based on the number of deputies they will have after the general election, the daily said.

Extra importance is attached to the interior and education ministries, which have traditionally always been under the control of the right-wing, “as there are masses waiting to see the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) approach,” the party officials argue, it added. The CHP is also expected to be persistent for the Defense, Justice and Foreign ministries.

The Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) chair Ali Babacan, a former finance minister, is designated to coordinate the economic policies, the paper suggested. The Nation Alliance was formed by the CHP, İYİ (Good) Party, the Felicity Party, the Future Party, the DEVA, and Democrat Party (DP).

Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş, mayors of Istanbul and Ankara respectively, will serve as the vice presidents if the alliance wins the presidential polls, Kılıçdaroğlu announced earlier.

İmamoğlu’s job will be to increase the Turkish cities’ readiness against disasters and create earthquake-resistant residential areas across the country, he stated.

Yavaş, for his part, will be responsible for strengthening the household economy through social policies and family support mechanisms, increasing women’s participation in labor, realizing agricultural development through technological means and the fight against poverty.