Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan’s AKP party does not rule out the possibility that he could run again in the next presidential elections, despite the fact that according to Turkey’s constitution he cannot run for a third presidential term.
In statements reported by Turkish media after a meeting of the party’s central executive yesterday, Justice and Development Party (AKP) spokesman Ömer Çelik confirmed that the possibility of Erdoğan’s return as a candidate has been contemplated in the AK Parti and that, if the voters and the candidate himself want it, political formulas will be studied to make it possible.
The idea has once again come to the forefront of the political agenda in Turkey after last weekend, during an event in Şanlıurfa, the famous Turkish singer of Kurdish origin Ibrahim Tatlıses – who has publicly supported Erdoğan in previous elections – asked the current president if he would be a candidate again in the next presidential elections scheduled for 2028, to which Erdoğan replied ‘I’m in if you are in’, in what has so far been his most explicit statement on this issue.
‘We are happy that this topic has been raised. Therefore, and as the president said, we are in if he is in. We will look for a formula. In politics, a year is a very short time, and a day is a long time. What matters is that our citizens want it,’ the AKP spokesman commented on the issue. ‘Given the current circumstances, and taking into account the developments in our region, it is obvious that the experience and political will of our president is of great value, both for our country and the region,’ Çelik added.
In principle, and according to the constitutional reform approved in a referendum in 2017 that introduced the presidential system in Turkey, a President of the Republic can only repeat once as a candidate, so his second and last term will end in 2028. In order to run for a third term, Erdoğan would therefore need to push through an amendment to the constitution, either directly with the favourable vote of two-thirds of the Turkish parliament (400 deputies), or with a three-fifths minority (360) and then submitting the amendment to a referendum. However, at present neither the AKP (268 MPs) nor its MHP allies (47) have enough MPs for either way.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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