CHP to appeal to top court for new bill

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) announced yesterday that they will take the controversial municipalities bill to the Constitutional Court under the claim it is unconstitutional.

Despite strong appeals by opposition parties to return the law to Parliament for a second round of debate, President Abdullah Gül approved a draft law to restructure municipalities late Dec. 5 after Parliament approved the bill Nov. 12.

Both the CHP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had previously called on Gül to return the bill to Parliament so it could be debated more.

CHP Deputy Chair Gökhan Günaydın, who had met with the president to express his party’s misgivings on the bill, yesterday said he was disappointed with Gül’s approval. Günaydın said he expected Gül to return “at least” some parts of the bill and described the approval as “weird.” Gül waited 14 days before he approved the bill. “I wonder what the president examined for 14 days. It’s weird that he found no [part of it] unconstitutional after that long of an examination,” Günaydın said.