President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Monday that he will preside over a Cabinet meeting, traditionally chaired by the prime minister, for the second time since his election to office in August on March 9.
"I would like to inform you that I will convene the cabinet once again in the presidential palace on March 9," he said in a speech at the presidential palace in Ankara.
The first Cabinet meeting that Erdoğan chaired took place on Jan. 19 amid criticisms from the opposition that he is pushing for a de facto change to a presidential system. Previous heads of state have only chaired cabinet meetings in times of crisis.
Erdoğan strongly supports a switch to a presidential system in Turkey and wants the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) to achieve a parliamentary majority sufficient to amend the Constitution and clear the way to replace the current system with a presidential one.
The president supports the formation of a “Turkish-style” presidential system -- which would involve keeping the unicameral system rather than shifting to a bicameral one like in the US. He says this will help the country's development by eliminating "multi-headedness" in state governance and thus pave the way for a more effective decision-making system.
