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President of Turkey: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Photo: TURKISH PRESIDENT PRESS OFFICE/HANDOUT/EPA
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced that the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for June will be brought forward to May 14.
He thanks God that he will contest the election, which will take place on May 14, with the first-time voters as companions, Erdoğan said in the evening at a meeting with young voters in western Turkey's Bursa, according to the state news agency Anadolu.
Erdoğan had already mentioned May 14 as the election date on Wednesday.
The elections are seen as a test for Erdoğan, who has been in power for 20 years: he was elected prime minister in 2003 and has been president since 2014.
According to polls, Erdoğan's re-election is anything but certain.
Constitutionalists disagree on legality
Early elections in Turkey can be ordered either with 60 percent of the votes in parliament or by decree by the president.
Erdoğan's ruling Islamic-conservative AKP, together with its ultra-nationalist partner MHP, currently only has a simple majority in parliament.
With his statement, Erdoğan now made it clear that he is aiming to bring the election forward on his own.
Erdoğan is likely to further fuel a discussion about his renewed candidacy: The opposition argues that Erdoğan – who was elected president for the first time in 2014 and for the second time in 2018 – is not allowed to run for a third time according to the constitution.
A third candidacy is only envisaged if Parliament forces early elections.
According to the government, nothing stands in the way of Erdoğan's candidacy.
She counters that Erdoğan was elected the first president in a new presidential system in 2018 after a constitutional amendment.
So his previous tenure doesn't count.
Constitutionalists are also divided on the issue.
czl/dpa
