Turkish constitutional referendum, 2017

Turkish constitutional referendum, 2017
Constitutional referendum for introducing a presidential system
Results by province
  Yes —   No
Turkey
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Turkey

A constitutional referendum is planned to be held in Turkey in April 2017 or later.[1] The constitutional amendments would introduce a presidential system, replacing the existing parliamentary system, which has long been a policy of the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and its founder, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Proposals for constitutional reform were initially announced by the AK Party following their victory in the 2011 general election, but were pushed back after the all-party parliamentary constitutional committee were unable to reach a consensus. Following the election of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as President in 2014, proposals for constitutional reform and an executive presidency gained strength and were key policy proposals in both the June 2015 general election and the November 2015 snap general election. On 24 May 2016, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was succeeded by Binali Yıldırım, with the former having resigned allegedly due to disagreements with Erdoğan following a lack of enthusiasm about constitutional change that would reduce the powers or eliminate the Office of the Prime Minister. In October 2015, the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which have historically been opposed to an executive presidency, called on the government to bring forward their proposals to Parliament, with party leader Devlet Bahçeli announcing that he would co-operate in the drafting process. The AK Party and MHP reached an agreement regarding a proposed new constitution on 1 December after a month of negotiations, beginning the parliamentary process of initiating a referendum on the proposals. Besides an executive presidency, the new constitution is likely to bring back the death penalty and changes to the oaths of office for numerous elected positions.

At present, the Constitution of Turkey requires any proposed constitutional changes to be approved by 330 Members of Parliament (three-fifths of the chamber) to be put forward to a referendum. An approval by two-thirds of the Parliament (367 MPs) would allow proposals to be directly enacted without a referendum, though the AK Party have claimed that they would put forward the proposed constitution to a referendum even if the two-thirds threshold is reached. The AK Party and MHP have 317 and 39 MPs in Parliament respectively, giving the proposals the preliminary backing of 356 MPs.

Background

Introducing a presidential system was proposed by then-Minister of Justice Cemil Çiçek and backed by then-Prime Minister Erdoğan in 2005.[2] Since then, presidential system has been openly supported by Justice and Development Party leaders several times, along with a "new constitution". Justice and Development Party vice-president Hayati Yazıcı proposed April 2017 as a date for the referendum.[3]

Position of main political parties

Choice Party Leader
Yes Yes Justice and Development Party Binali Yıldırım
Nationalist Movement PartyA[›] Devlet Bahçeli
No Peoples' Democratic Party Selahattin Demirtaş/Figen Yüksekdağ
Not decided yet Republican People's Party Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu

^ A: Conditional support[4]

Polls

Date(s)
conducted		 Polling organisation/client Sample size Considering undecided vote Considering Yes/No vote
Yes No Undecided Yes No
1 Dec 2016 The AK Party and the MHP agree on draft constitutional proposals and refer them to Parliament for consultation[5]
30 Nov 2016 MetroPoll – 39.0 51.0 10.0 43.3 56.7
26-27 Nov 2016 A&G 3,010 45.7 41.6 12.7 52.4 47.6
15-17 Nov 2016 Andy-AR 1,516 47.1 41.3 8.5 53.3 46.7
31 Oct 2016 The AK Party present their constitutional proposals to the MHP, beginning negotiations between the two parties[6]
10-16 Oct 2016 ORC 21,980 55.9 36.2 7.9 60.7 39.3
11-12 Oct 2016 Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım accepts the MHP's calls for the AK Party to bring their proposals to Parliament[7]
5-12 Jun 2016 ORC 2,240 58.9 41.1 – 58.9 41.1
1 June 2016 MetroPoll 1,200 41.9 47.5 10.5 46.9 53.1
30 May 2016 Optimar 1,508 49.3 41.6 9.1 54.2 45.8
5-6 May 2016 ORC 1,265 58.4 41.6 – 58.4 41.6
25-29 Apr 2016 MAK 5,500 57.0 33.0 10.0 63.3 36.7
25 Apr 2016 AKAM 1,214 35.0 45.7 19.3 43.4 56.6
2-6 Mar 2016 ORC 4,176 57.0 43.0 – 57.0 43.0
27 Jan-3 Feb 2016 ORC 8,329 56.1 43.9 – 56.1 43.9
1 Jan 2016 GENAR 4,900 55.0 40.8 4.2 57.4 42.6
18 May 2015 Gezici 4,860 23.8 76.2 – 23.8 76.2
23 Feb 2015 Gezici 3,840 23.2 76.8 – 23.2 76.8
3 Feb 2015 MetroPoll – 34.3 42.2 23.5 44.8 55.2

References

  1. ↑ "İşte AK Parti'nin tam başkanlık modeli" (in Turkish). Ahaber. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  2. ↑ "Gündem başkanlık tartışması" (in Turkish). NTV Turkey. 3 January 2005. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  3. ↑ "AKP'den başkanlık açıklaması: Nisan ayında referanduma gidilebilir" (in Turkish). BirGün. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  4. ↑ "İşte MHP'nin başkanlık şartları" (in Turkish). Ulusal Kanal. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  5. ↑ http://www.dw.com/tr/başkanlık-sistemi-haftaya-meclise-geliyor/a-36604491
  6. ↑ http://www.abcgazetesi.com/akpnin-mhpye-goturecegi-baskanlik-teklifi-belli-oldu-32655h.htm
  7. ↑ http://t24.com.tr/haber/basbakan-bahcelinin-referandum-teklifini-kabul-ediyoruz-baskanlik-icin-derhal-adim-atacagiz-karari-millet-verecek,364561
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