Election rule of 50 plus one will drag Turkey into chaos: Presidential aide

ANKARA

The constitutional obligation of garnering 50 percent plus one vote for being elected as the president causes serious political and systemic problems, a senior presidential aide and veteran politician has said, calling on both the government and the opposition to come together to fix it.

“I have said, and keep saying, that this 50 plus one [obligation] will lead to serious difficulties and drag Turkey into chaos. These words of mine have nothing to do with being pro-government or pro-opposition. They are so clear. The 50 plus one election rule is triggering serious problems and will do the same in the future too,” Cemil Çiçek, a member of the Presidential High Advisory Board, told the daily Sözcü in an interview over the weekend.

Çiçek had served as deputy prime minister and justice minister in the Justice and Development Party (AKP) governments under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s leadership.

Turkey replaced the parliamentary system with a strong centralized executive-presidential system through a referendum in 2017. The new model requires at least 50 percent plus one vote for being elected as the president. Erdoğan received around 52 percent of the votes in the 2018 elections but with the support of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

“We have come to such a point that both the government and the opposition have doubts about the 50 plus one requirement. Because in such case you always need the support of another party,” Çiçek said.

Recalling that the opposition is pressing for a return to the parliamentary system, but the elections in 2023 will be held according to the existing presidential model, Çiçek said, “What will happen if [the opposition] fails to get 360 seats at the parliament in 2023? Then this system will run for another five years. If this system causes problems and chaos, that means Turkey will enter in a five-year-long period of uncertainty.”

Çiçek called on the two sides to discuss the positive and negative sides of the current system and create a gray area for fixing it.