Prominent AKP figures to leave parliament

Nuray Babacan - ANKARA

Early elections will change the positions of some prominent ruling party figures. Some will have to say goodbye to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), while others will be assigned duties outside of the Turkish Parliament. There are five categories of new positions: Those who will be elected as lawmakers, those who will be assigned to the presidential palace, those who will run for mayorship and those who will say farewell to the AKP.

Ahmet Davutoğlu, Ali Babacan, Mehmet Müezzinoğlu, İsmail Kahraman and Beşir Atalay will not run for elections, according to their wishes, daily Hürriyet has reported. The only surprise about these names is they may be commissioned outside of parliament.

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım will likely be assigned as vice president, while some other ministers will be part of the cadre at the presidential office. However, after a while it will be possible for some of these figures to run in local elections. Most of the lawmakers in the ruling party will be replaced.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek does not want to run in the elections, but President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan may want him for a task in the cabinet or the parliament. Erdoğan will also decide on Cemil Çiçek and Faruk Çelik’s positions.

Names such as Hayati Yazıcı, Mustafa Şentop, Mustafa Elitaş, Mahir Ünal are expected to be on the list of election candidates and to be part of the party administration. Half of the ministers in the cabinet are expected to appear in the parliament as lawmakers. Only a few of the ministers are likely to continue to the cabinet.

Bekir Bozdağ, İsmet Yılmaz, Ahmet Arslan, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Mehmet Özhaseki, Lütfi Elvan and Bülent Tüfenkci are expected to be lawmakers, as the decrease in the number of cabinet ministers will play a role in this shift.