Early polls proposal submitted

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

A proposal for a constitutional amendment that would allow upcoming local elections to be held earlier than scheduled was submitted to Parliament yesterday. The proposal was drafted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) with the Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) support.

A temporary provision will be added to Article 127 of the Constitution, according to which the local elections that under the current law are required to take place on March 29, 2014 will instead be held on the last Sunday of October 2013. This date is Oct. 27, but the parties are concerned that writing down an exact date may create some unforeseen problems in the future. If the date is cited exactly as “Oct. 27, 2013,” then legally future

elections would have to be held every five years on Oct. 27. The clause specifying that elections will be held every five years will remain unchanged.

The second article of the proposal suggests that Article 67 of the Constitution, which states that amendments to electoral laws cannot be put in practice for one year, not be implemented for the 2013 local elections.