Snap Turkish elections bill submitted to parliament

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

The bill on holding snap elections on June 24 was submitted to the office of Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman on on April 18.

The bill bears the signature of Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli.

The draft bill will be debated in the parliament’s constitutional committee on April 20. The general assembly is expected to debate the bill on April 20 and 21.

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

The announcement came after Bahçeli, whose party is set to enter elections in an alliance with the Justice and Development Party (AKP), called for early elections.

“Turkey’s cross-border operation in Syria and the situation in both Syria and Iraq obliged Turkey to overcome uncertainties as soon as possible,” Erdoğan said, announcing the decision.

“At a time when developments in Syria have accelerated and we have to take very important decisions, from macroeconomic equilibrium to large investments, the election issue should be taken off the table as soon as possible,” he added.