Two of Turkey’s four biggest political parties announce sweeping changes to the country’s system of government
Originally published on 12/12/2016, this page is now archived
Below is a snapshot of James in Turkey’s analysis of the December 2016 executive presidency reforms as they were originally proposed. Some reforms were subsequently dropped and the number of articles reduced from 21 to 18.
To read about the bill as it currently stands, visit this page instead.
This weekend, the governing Justice and Development (AK) Party announced its plans to abolish the position of prime minister and vest all his powers in the country’s presidency, currently occupied by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The 21 articles are the result of painstaking negotiations with the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), whose leader Devlet Bahçeli unexpectedly reversed his party’s opposition to a so-called “executive presidency” and provided the AK Party with the votes it needs to get the proposal through parliament.
It includes:
- The president serving both as head of state and head of the executive;
- A cabinet of ministers appointed by the president, with no vote of confidence from parliament;
- The number of MPs will increase by fifty to 600, although the election system won’t change for now;
- A “guillotine system” that would see snap elections for both president and parliament if one dissolves the other.
Opposition parties – the social democratic CHP and pro-Kurdish HDP – have said they will vote against the proposal.
It contains some dramatic changes to Turkey’s system of government, the way its laws are proposed and its judges appointed. In a country that is already hugely centralised in the capital Ankara, it pools even more power to a single office in that city.
Here, we look at some of the changes the AK Party and MHP are proposing and their chances of passing the crucial hurdles in parliament.
The Executive
Under the proposal, the prime minister’s position will be abolished and the government will no longer need a vote of confidence in parliament.
The Judiciary
Under the proposals, Turkey’s most senior judges would all be selected by politicians – and most of them by the president.
Above: proportion of senior Turkish judges appointed
under proposed presidential system
There are sweeping reforms to the Hakimler ve Savcılar Yüksek Kurulu (HSYK), the body that admits judges and prosecutors into the profession, allocates them to specific courts and takes any disciplinary action against them. Under the changes the judiciary would be stripped of the right to pick any of the HSYK’s members.
Instead, the government wants to shrink the body to 12 members and share the responsibility for filling the roles between parliament and the president. Each will have six members to appoint as the seats become vacant.
The irony is that the changes are a reversal of AK’s earlier reforms that were endorsed in a referendum six years ago, promoted at the time as an attempt to give greater independence to the judiciary.
But the 2016 proposals are significant for another reason: the power pooled in the presidency. Alongside the HSYK, the Turkish president is responsible for appointing 14 of the 17 members of the Constitutional Court – the highest judicial body in the land.
It means Turkey’s president will now be directly responsible, without any external oversight, for appointing two-thirds of the country’s 39 most senior judges.
The Budget
Powers to propose the country’s annual budget shift from ministers to the president. Some restrictions, such as to amend the budget, are loosened.
New presidency: the budget
A summary of how budgets would be tabled under Turkey's proposed executive presidency| Annual budget | Current system | AK Party/MHP proposal |
|---|---|---|
| Proposed by | Cabinet of ministers | The president |
| Scrutinised by | A budget committee contained a majority of government members, but all parliamentary parties represented | A budget committee. Previous references to composition now removed. |
| Overspends | Not permitted. Ministers cannot unilaterally decide to overspend. | Not permitted. The president cannot unilaterally decide to overspend. |
| Budgetary amendments | Minsters cannot amend a budget by decree after it has been accepted. | Reference removed in proposed system. No such restriction on president. |
| Final accounts | Submitted to parliament seven months after fiscal year-end. | Submitted to parliament six months after fiscal year-end. |
Scrutiny
Article 98 of the present constitution equips parliament with five mechanisms to hold the government to account. The proposed changes would see some of these abolished.
The Numbers
All 316 AK Party MPs have signed the proposal, but changes to the constitution require the support of at least 330 MPs if they are to be put to a popular referendum.
The Speaker cannot vote, meaning the AK Party needs the support of at least 15 MHP MPs to reach the threshold.
Removal from office
A widely-held principle of parliamentary democracies is the vote of confidence: governments must command the support of a majority of the legislature. If they lose that majority, they fall.
Turkey’s proposed presidential system would remove this principle and replace it with a mechanism that needs more MPs to vote for it and more time to complete.
Ministers and vice presidents only
The gensoru (censure motion) is the present mechanism used by members of parliament wanting a probe and eventually to trigger a vote of confidence in any minister, including the prime minister.
A successful gensoru can result in the individual or the entire government being toppled. It must take no longer than 18 days to work through all its stages.
Under the AK Party / MHP proposal, the censure motion will be abolished and replaced with a soruşturma (investigation) that could take as long as 10 months to be completed. Only ministers and vice-presidents will be subject to this mechanism.
President: not just about treason
Under the current system, there is only one crime the largely symbolic president can be impeached for: treason. A full three-quarters of MPs must vote to topple him, making it one of the highest thresholds in the constitution.
The AK Party / MHP proposal replaces all references to treason with the words “a crime”. But it requires a majority of MPs to propose an investigation against him, whereas treason motions can currently be tabled by a third of lawmakers.
The proposal also dictates that he must be tried by the 17 judges of the Constitutional Court, sitting as the Yüce Divan – Supreme Court.
Under the AK Party’s successful judicial reforms of 2010, 14 of that court’s judges are already appointed by the president.