Explained: Erdoğan vs. the Constitutional Court
William Armstrong - william.armstrong@hdn.com.tr
The current showdown between Turkey’s Constitutional Court, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been a long time coming. As the country awaits the Court’s decision on whether the 10 percent parliamentary election threshold is unconstitutional, government officials have lined up familiar arguments: A ruling in favor of lowering the threshold would amount to a politically motivated attempt to suppress the elected “national will” and Turkey’s authentic rulers. The decision - although not legally binding - comes at a sensitive time for the AKP, which needs to secure two thirds of seats in parliament in the June 2015 election to pass the constitutional change necessary to create an executive presidential system, (which will be almost impossible with a more proportional electoral system).
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