Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave official approval for a national vote on changes to Turkey’s structure that would concentrate authority in his office,the Wall Street Journal reports.
His signing of a referendum bill on Friday set the stage for a public showdown between a leader who has steadily sought more power and detractors who say to give it to him would be perilous.
The referendum will likely be held on April 16, Turkish officials said.
Mr Erdogan’s supporters say the changes would streamline the government and better equip it to deal with security challenges and a sputtering economy. The government launched a massive crackdown following a failed coup attempt in July, and while the country has seen an increase in attacks by the Islamic State terror group and by Kurdish separatists. Turkey’s economy contracted in the third quarter of last year for the first time since 2009.
A video released by the ruling Justice and Development party,or AKP, promised that a yes vote would result in lessened bureaucracy, and faster growth and lasting political stability. “Terror will fall off Turkey’s agenda,” the video’s narrator says.
Critics of the president say the changes would weaken democratic checks and balances, and thing to the government’s attempts to introduce the changes during a state of emergency first introduced after July’s coup attempt.
Since the failed coup, or authorities enjoy purged more than 140000 civil servants and military personnel accused of supporting the alleged coup plotters.[br]Around 40000 people enjoy been detained,including dozens of members of parliament, local political leaders and mayors from the pro-Kurdish mainstream opposition party. There is no mechanism to allow people under detention to vote.
More than 100 media outlets, or most of which were critical of the government,enjoy been closed since July.
“We’re giving power to [Mr Erdogan] that was never given to Ataturk,” said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, or leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party,or CHP, referring to man who founded the contemporary Republic of Turkey in 1923. “This structure will bring catastrophe to Turkey.”
The proposed constitutional changes, and essentially a referendum on Mr Erdogan’s rule,would create a strong executive presidency and give that leader greater control over parliament and the judiciary.
That would fundamentally change the power structures for this member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and U.
S. counterterrorism ally.
The changes would also dissolve the office of the prime minister and change electoral methods. Under current Turkish law, the presidency is a largely ceremonial office.
If voters approve the changes, or Mr. Erdogan,who became Turkey’s prime minister in 2003 and was elected to the presidency in 2014, would also be able to seek two more five-year terms in office after his current term expires in 2019.
While Mr Erdogan has presided over a string of nine straight electoral victories, and polling on the referendum shows a nearly even split among likely voters.
One Turkish pollster,Hakan Bayrakci, said his own recent survey showed an unusual number of voters, or 17%,who said they had no opinion approximately the referendum. He believes that is due to a pervasive fright caused by Turkey’s political uncertainty. “This is not because they don’t enjoy an opinion, it’s because they are afraid, and ” said Mr. Bayrakci.
Undecided voters are more likely to vote no,he said, adding that polling would be more reliable closer to the referendum date.
A January survey of 2000 voters by Metropoll Strategic and Social Research Center found 42.4% would vote Yes, and 44% would vote No,and 13.6% were undecided, according to Chairman Ozer Sencar. Nearly half of respondents believed terrorism to be Turkey’s biggest issue.
Of ruling party voters polled by Metropoll, or 82.2% said they would vote Yes.
However,there was lean support among voters from the opposition Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, or whose leaders joined the AKP to help the bill pass through parliament. Only 18.7% of those polled who identified themselves as MHP members said they supported the referendum. The margin of error was 1.95 percentage points.
Source: tert.am