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AK Party Deputies Critical Of Erdoğan Not Running In Snap Election

05.09.2015 16:37

AHMET DÖNMEZA number of Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputies and ministers have not submitted their applications to be chosen as AK Party deputy candidates in the upcoming snap election scheduled to take place in Nov. 1 in due to their differences with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.The.

AHMET DÖNMEZ
A number of Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputies and ministers have not submitted their applications to be chosen as AK Party deputy candidates in the upcoming snap election scheduled to take place in Nov. 1 in due to their differences with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The AK Party deputies and ministers who completed their third term in Parliament and have not applied to be deputy candidates in the Nov. 1 snap election, including Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, Trade Minister Nihat Ergün, former Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin and deputies Nimet Baş and Hüseyin Çelik, have all disagreed with President Erdoğan from time to time during their tenure.

The AK Party is planning to ease its three-term limit rule -- under which deputies cannot serve in Parliament for more than three consecutive terms -- for the snap election so that 27 deputies, including seven ministers, will have the opportunity to run for office again, a daily reported on Aug. 16.

Another feature the ministers and deputies have in common is believing -- similar to former President Abdullah Gül -- that the AK Party should have formed a coalition government after the June 7 election because a snap election could lead the country to a dangerous place. They all have also disagreed with the unlawful and antidemocratic practices carried out by the government against the faith-based Hizmet movement after a major investigation into graft that implicated President Erdoğan and other top AK Party figures was made public on Dec. 17, 2013.

Among the 27 people who have submitted their applications to be chosen as AK Party deputy candidates in the upcoming snap election are President Erdoğan's adviser and former minister Binali Yıldırım, former Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ, Culture and Tourism Minister Ömer Çelik and former parliamentary Constitutional Commission President Burhan Kuzu.

Çelik's disagreement with President Erdoğan became public after his interview with Cansu Çamlıbel from the Hürriyet daily on July 20. “A coalition government with the Republican People's Party [CHP] could work,” Çelik had said, adding that the AK Party's votes fell after President Erdoğan conducted an election campaign in favor of the ruling party, which was an action that turned the election into a referendum for the presidential system.

Erdoğan was elected the 13th president under the parliamentary system on Aug 10 last year. However, he is strongly advocating for a presidential system that will concentrate power in the hands of the president and would undermine the checks and balances that are an indispensable element of a presidential system in any democracy. He even recently argued that Turkey's government has been already changed into a de facto presidential system, calling for a constitutional framework to "finalize" this transition.

Former Justice Minister Ergin had said during a program on CNN Türk that a snap election would do the AK Party no good. He also denied claims of a “parallel state,” a term used by Erdoğan to refer to followers of the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement, inspired by the teachings of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. (Cihan/Today's Zaman)



 
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