Turkey’s top court refuses to hear complaints about electoral threshold

ANKARA

In a key ruling, the Constitutional Court has refused to hear individual complaints filed for the lowering of the 10 percent parliamentary threshold in the Turkish election system.

Constitutional Court head Haşim Kılıç had stated in late November that the Court was working on applications and will make a decision in two to three weeks.

“Our rapporteurs have finalized their study, there are crucial discussions in the report,” Kılıç said at the time, referring to the issue as a "sensitive matter."

There were several applications to the Constitutional Court to lift the election threshold, which is one of the highest in the world.

However, the Court has decided that the applications were inadmissible due to non-competence by a majority of votes, not unanimously, unlike several of its recent decisions.

14 members of the court voted against the application, while two others voted in favor. Kılıç, who was accused of reflecting bias with his recent statements, did not participate in the vote.

The Court and its top judge have recently been harshly slammed by figures of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Turkey is set to go to the polls in June for the general elections, with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu denying claims that they will be held earlier.

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) is the closest party to the 10 percent limit, and it has preferred to nominate independent candidates and later establish groups at Parliament in recent elections.