Debate shifts to semi-presidential system

Source: 
Today's Zaman
Publication date: 
Apr 12 2013
The Justice and Development Party (AK Party), whose plans to introduce a presidential system of government for Turkey have been severely criticized by the opposition, is reportedly preparing to propose a semi-presidential system, but it is unlikely that it will curb opposition against dropping the country's parliamentary system.
 

Reports that appeared in Turkish newspapers on Friday claimed that the AK Party was preparing to introduce a semi-presidential system in its proposal for a new constitution in which a candidate running for president will not have to be a neutral political figure. According to reports, the president will be elected by a general vote in the AK Party's system, and the prime minister will be appointed by the president. The prime minister will have to seek a vote of confidence from Parliament after forming the Cabinet. The president will have the status of “head of the executive branch” and also head the Cabinet. The prime minister, in a sense, will be working as an assistant to the president.

Although the proposal has not been made yet, opposition parties were quick to voice vehement objections.

Ahmet İyimaya, head of the Parliamentary Justice Commission and an AK Party deputy, on Friday responded to questions from the press regarding the reports. “There is no such plan to revise the presidential system or substitute it with a different system,” he said, denying that a semi-presidential system was going be proposed. However, he repeated the government's support for changing the system to a presidential system. He said members of the Parliamentary Constitutional Reconciliation Commission -- which is drafting the text for a new constitution for Turkey -- might consider a transition to a presidential system, if consensus is reached on all the other parts of the constitution unrelated to systems of government.

İyimaya said: “The AK Party will give the opportunity to complete talks on the new constitution sticking to a parliamentary model. However, if no consensus is reached, we think it will only be consistent for us to continue proposing a presidential system as a form of government. We believe that the presidential system we propose has a problem-solving quality given Turkey's experience and problems.” He repeated that if agreement is reached on the other aspects of the constitution, the government was not going insist on a presidential system.

He also responded to earlier criticism raised against the proposal of the AK Party, which experts said did not fit any international pattern. “Turkey doesn't always have to look for a precedent and it has the capacity to form systems that will serve as precedents in the global constitutional and governmental literature. The system we propose is original and authentic, inline with the nature of our problems.”

Mustafa Şentop, an AK Party deputy chairman and member of the Parliamentary Constitutional Reconciliation Commission also stated that the AK Party will insist on a presidential system for Turkey if the parties in Parliament fail to agree on the other parts of a new constitution. He said Turkey will vote in 2014 for the first time for a president, which will cause a dual power structure. “This system problem should somehow be solved. So our proposal for a presidential system is out of practical necessity. We can't possibly go back to the classical parliamentary system after the 2007 amendment that introduced voting in a president. We need to take the system forward, and this will either be a presidential or a semi-presidential system.”

The Republican People's Party (CHP) lashed out at the AK Party. Head of the CHP's parliamentary group Akif Hamzaçebi said, of the semi-presidential system that is reportedly going to be proposed by the AK Party, “Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with this model wants to come to a position of absolute power.”

Speaking to journalists at Parliament on Friday, Hamzaçebi said: “I am not surprised that they brought to the agenda a French-type presidential system, calling it a Turkish model. Certainly, the authorities of [the president in the US system] cannot be enough for him. He wouldn't be happy with that. That country has a rigid rule of separation of powers.”

Hamzaçebi added, “Mr. Erdoğan wants to bring himself to a position where he will have absolute power.” He said this would be tantamount to bidding goodbye to democracy, rights and freedoms. “According to the system they are proposing, the president will be a party member. He will not have to step down as the leader of his party. He will appoint the prime minister, and in addition to that, chair the Cabinet. In other words, the prime minister will be a staff member for the president. He will be no different from an undersecretary or a general manager. The prime minister is dreaming of presidency, but he will never become the president.”

The Nationalist Movement Party's (MHP) Oktay Vural, who is the chairman of the party's parliamentary group, also responded to a question on Friday regarding reports about the AK Party's new plans for a semi-presidential system. “We are faced with a party that doesn't know what it is doing. Is it like currently Abdullah Gül is a president who doesn't belong to a political party, or an impartial president?” he asked.

 

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