Opposition Plans To Appeal To Top Court To Cancel Graft Vote On Bağış

The main opposition Republican Peoples' Party (CHP) is considering appealing to the Constitutional Court to repeat a vote in Parliament on a former minister, as the opposition party says the minister failed to receive enough supporting votes to defeat a motion to stand trial for corruption charges.

The CHP said former EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bağış failed to secure an absolute majority in the general assembly vote, and as such he should be sent to the Constitutional Court, which acts as the Supreme State Council in the trial of ministers. The party said the speaker of Parliament had illegally declared that the motion against Bağış was defeated and that it plans to appeal the speaker's decision in the Constitutional Court on procedural grounds, asking to repeat the vote.

Bağış, who received the least support from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputies at the ballot box, was among four former ministers who were investigated on charges of corruption, bribery and abuses of authority.

Akif Hamzaçebi, a CHP parliamentary group deputy chairman, claimed the vote on Bağış needs to be repeated until an absolute majority of votes is reached.

The CHP argued that, according to Article 96 of the Constitution, Bağış should have received an absolute majority, which under normal circumstances corresponds to 276 votes in the 550-member Parliament, where the ruling party enjoys a comfortable majority with 312 deputies. However, only 517 deputies were on the Parliament floor to vote, and the motion to send Bağış to stand trial was defeated 255-245, with seven abstentions and six invalid votes.

According to the CHP, the Constitution stipulates that an absolute majority was necessary to defeat the motion to send the minister to trial, which would be equivalent to 259 votes out of 517. The total number of votes for Bağış fell short of that majority, and as such the declaration from the speaker that the motion against Bağış had been defeated must be null and void.

Recalling that in the past similar motions had all been decided with an absolute majority, the CHP is holding talks with the Office of the Speaker of Parliament to repeat the vote. If the speaker rejects the CHP's petition, it will build a case to submit to the Constitutional Court.

On March 1, 2003 a motion prepared by the government to seek permission from Parliament to deploy Turkish troops in Iraq and to allow US troops to use Turkish soil for deployment in Iraq was rejected in Parliament because it failed to garner the support of an absolute majority, as required by Article 96 of the Constitution.

During the vote on that motion, 264 deputies supported the motion, while 250 opposed it and 19 abstained. Since the absolute majority was not obtained, then-Speaker of Parliament Bülent Arınç declared that the motion had failed to pass.

The CHP also recalled a Constitutional Court decision from 1996 that overruled a vote of confidence in Parliament for a coalition government known as ANAYOL, which was formed by Mesut Yılmaz's Motherland Party (ANAP) and Tansu Çiller's True Path Party (DYP). Bülent Ecevit's Democratic Left Party (DSP) supported them in the vote of confidence in order to ward off the Welfare Party (RP) led by Necmettin Erbakan.

The vote of confidence -- with 544 participating lawmakers -- resulted in 257 in approval and 207 opposed, with 80 abstentions. Since support for the vote failed to secure an absolute majority, Erbakan took his case to the Constitutional Court on grounds that the Constitution had been violated. The court ruled in favor of Erbakan and cancelled the vote in the Parliament.

Report: Davutoğlu pressed for graft trial of ex-ministers despite scandal risk

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu pressed four ex-ministers facing corruption allegations to willingly appear before the Supreme State Council during a meeting held a day before a vote by a parliamentary graft commission to refer them to the top court, despite the risk of a scandal that the ruling party might face, a daily reported on Friday.

According to the report published by the Hürriyet daily, the four former ministers -- Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan, Interior Minister Muammer Güler, EU Affairs Minister Bağış and Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar -- and deputy chairmen of the ruling AK Party parliamentary group, Mustafa Elitaş and Mahir Ünal, held a meeting with Davutoğlu on Dec. 21 that lasted two-and-a-half hours.

The report says the AK Party members in the parliamentary graft commission established to look into claims of corruption against the four former Cabinet ministers wanted to send the former ministers to the top court. The commission members informed the AK Party parliamentary group about their decision.

The four former ministers, Ünal and Elitaş then met with Davutoğlu to discuss the commission members' decision, the report stated. When he learned about the AK Party commission members' desire to send the four ex-ministers to the top court, Davutoğlu reportedly wanted the former ministers to appear before the court willingly, before the commission voted to refer them.

A minister reportedly warned the prime minister by saying that their referral to the top court would cause a variety secret information to be "scattered about." Davutoğlu reportedly responded by saying, “If it is scattered, let it scatter.”

According to the report, the four ex-ministers decided to direct the issue to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after they failed to get sufficient support from Davutoğlu. The ex-ministers chose former minister Çağlayan as their representative to meet with Erdoğan. After the meeting between Çağlayan and Erdoğan took place, the commission's desire to refer the ex-ministers to the top court soon changed.

The report also says Çağlayan said that the former ministers cannot be referred to the Supreme State Council, warning that the ruling party has to protect them. Güler also asked Davutoğlu, “If we appear before the Supreme State Council, will you protect us there?”

The four ex-ministers left their posts under claims of corruption a week after a graft probe went public on Dec. 17, 2013.

The vote held by the parliamentary commission on whether to send the four ministers to the top court was scheduled to be held on Dec. 22, but the vote was postponed to Jan. 5 after the ex-ministers opposed to a report issued by the Finance Ministry's Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) over the former ministers' property holdings.

The nine ruling party members of the 14-member parliamentary Corruption Investigation Commission voted, as expected, against referring the four former ministers to the Constitutional Court in a session of the commission on Jan. 5.

The remaining five opposition members of the commission voted in favor of a referral to the Constitutional Court, which is called the Supreme State Council when it tries top state officials.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)