Track Turkey’s executive presidency bill through parliament

Follow as MPs vote on each clause of proposals to grant President Erdoğan sweeping executive powers

On Monday 9 January, Turkey’s MPs began debating the governing AK Party’s proposals to reform the country’s system of government and concentrate power in the hands of a single office, the presidency. You can read more about the proposals in detail in James in Turkey’s explainer here.

This page tracks their progress as they vote on each part of the 18-article proposal.

A minimum of 330 votes is required to put the proposals to a referendum – opposition leaders believe wavering MPs in the AK Party and the nationalist MHP, whose leadership supports the measures, could push the numbers below this threshold.

Below are the results of each stage of voting and a brief summary of what each article would do. Voting was conducted in two rounds; the first round was completed on 15 January and the second concluded early in the morning of 21 January. In all, MPs spent 129 hours and 12 minutes debating and voting on the constitutional amendment in the space of twelve days.

See the Turkish parliament’s website to read the proposals – in Turkish – in greater detail.

Follow the links below to jump to a section of voting:

Initial vote
Clause-by-clause voting
Final vote

Initial vote

Decision on whether to proceed to clause-by-clause voting.

Choice	Result
Yes	338
No	134
Abstain	2
Blank	5
Spoiled	1
Total	480
Boycotts	HDP (59)
	10 Jan 1.20am

Clause-by-clause voting

Article 1

Addition of word “unbiased” to clause on judiciary.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	347	345
No	132	140
Abstain	2	0
Blank	2	1
Spoiled	1	0
Total	484	486
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	10 Jan 11.37pm	18 Jan 7.11pm

Article 2

Increase the number of MPs from 550 to 600.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	343	342
No	133	139
Abstain	1	0
Blank	2	4
Spoiled	1	0
Total	480	485
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	11 Jan 3.31am	18 Jan 9.09pm

Article 3

Lower minimum age to become an MP from 25 to 18.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	341	342
No	139	137
Abstain	0	0
Blank	3	3
Spoiled	2	3
Total	485	485
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	11 Jan 10.22pm	18 Jan 10.10pm

Article 4

Hold parliamentary elections at least once every 5 years, up from every 4 years. Hold parliamentary and presidential elections simultaneously.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	343	342
No	139	138
Abstain	0	1
Blank	2	4
Spoiled	2	1
Total	486	486
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	12 Jan 1.43am	18 Jan 11.14pm

Article 5

Remove reference in constitution that requires parliament to scrutinise the executive.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	343	342
No	7	140
Abstain	0	0
Blank	3	4
Spoiled	1	0
Total	354	486
Boycotts	CHP (133) HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	12 Jan 4.30am	19 Jan 12.26am

Article 6

Remove parliament’s power to censure ministers and the government; water down other scrutiny powers.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	343	342
No	137	138
Abstain	0	0
Blank	2	3
Spoiled	1	2
Total	483	485
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	12 Jan 9.28pm	19 Jan 2.44am

Article 7

Candidacy and election of president, including qualifications required to run, method of election and two-term limit.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	340	340
No	136	136
Abstain	0	1
Blank	4	4
Spoiled	2	3
Total	482	484
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	13 Jan 12.34am	19 Jan 3.51am

Article 8

Role and responsibilities of president, including powers to rule by decree.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	340	339
No	135	138
Abstain	0	1
Blank	5	2
Spoiled	1	3
Total	481	483
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	13 Jan 3.13am	19 Jan 11.57pm

Article 9

President’s criminal liabilities

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	343	341
No	137	137
Abstain	0	0
Blank	3	4
Spoiled	2	1
Total	485	483
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	13 Jan 8.26pm	20 Jan 1.24am

Article 10

Defining the role and responsibilities of vice presidents and cabinet ministers

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	343	340
No	135	136
Abstain	0	0
Blank	3	3
Spoiled	2	2
Total	483	481
Boycotts	HDP (59)
	13 Jan 11.59pm	20 Jan 2.20am

Article 11

So-called guillotine system: parliament and president can dissolve one another.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	341	342
No	134	135
Abstain	1	1
Blank	5	3
Spoiled	2	0
Total	483	481
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	14 Jan 4.12am	20 Jan 3.11am

Article 12

President’s ability to declare a state of emergency of up to six months, and his powers during this period.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	344	342
No	133	138
Abstain	0	0
Blank	2	2
Spoiled	3	2
Total	482	484
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	14 Jan 7.42pm	20 Jan 7.36pm

Article 13

Abolition of all military tribunals except for discipline cases.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	343	343
No	133	136
Abstain	1	0
Blank	3	3
Spoiled	2	2
Total	482	484
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	14 Jan 10.33pm	20 Jan 8.34pm

Article 14

Sweeping changes to the HSYK, the body that appoints admits judges and prosecutors into the profession, allocates them to specific courts and takes any disciplinary action against them.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	341	342
No	133	139
Abstain	1	0
Blank	4	3
Spoiled	4	3
Total	483	486
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	15 Jan 12.17am	20 Jan 10.21pm

Article 15

Powers to propose the country’s annual budget shift from ministers collectively to the president individually. Parliament’s powers to scrutinise slightly watered down.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	341	342
No	134	141
Abstain	1	0
Blank	5	2
Spoiled	2	1
Total	483	486
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	15 Jan 3.08am	20 Jan 11.32pm

Article 16

Remove references to “cabinet”, “prime minister” and other now-redundant terms from the constitution.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	341	342
No	134	141
Abstain	1	0
Blank	3	2
Spoiled	3	1
Total	482	486
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	15 Jan 6.06am	21 Jan 12.34pm

Article 17

Temporary measures to cover transition period to next general election in 2019.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	342	341
No	135	139
Abstain	2	0
Blank	3	2
Spoiled	2	3
Total	484	485
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	15 Jan 8.21pm	21 Jan 1.39am

Article 18

Remove articles rendered redundant in existing constitution by these reforms.

Choice	Round 1	Round 2
Yes	344	343
No	131	142
Abstain	1	0
Blank	2	2
Spoiled	3	1
Total	481	488
Boycotts	HDP (59)	HDP (59)
	15 Jan 11.20pm	21 Jan 3.10am

Final vote

A final vote on the entire constitutional amendment package as a whole.

Choice	Result
Yes	339
No	142
Abstain	0
Blank	5
Spoiled	2
Total	488
Boycotts	HDP (59)
	21 Jan 4.16am