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A substantial law that gives the green light to political parties to form pre-election alliances and overhauls electoral regulations on the eve of 2019 polls has been approved at parliament after a marathon nightlong session, which included a physical fight between ruling and opposition lawmakers.

The 26-article law was approved by a majority vote led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The two parties have already announced an agreement to form what they have dubbed the “People’s Alliance.”

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Friday condemned the sentences ranging from two to seven years in prison that 25 Turkish journalists received on March 8 in a political mass trial in Istanbul targeting opposition journalists.

The sentences were issued after the 25 journalists were convicted of supporting or being members of a movement led by US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen, regarded by the Turkish government as a “terrorist organization” and blamed for an attempted coup in July 2016.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ has denied rumors the government would call a snap election, saying that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) always favors polls to take place on their planned dates.

“Elections in Turkey will be held on time. There will be no snap elections; there will be elections held on time,” Bozdağ told reporters after a meeting in Ankara on March 1.

Turkey is scheduled to hold local eletions in March 2019 and parliamentary and presidential elections in November 2019.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has submitted a draft bill to abolish the 10-percent election threshold as a reaction to ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) joint legislation move for election alliances.

“All discussions on alliances indicate that in order to ensure a right system of representation in parliament the electoral threshold should be abolished immediately,” read the draft bill submitted to the Parliamentary Speaker’s Office on Feb. 23.

Great Union Party (BBP) leader Mustafa Destici said they support the pre-election alliance between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), state-run Anadolu Agency has reported. 

“We have made it clear since the beginning that we would support and join the alliance. For now, everything is going well for us to be in the alliance,” he said in an interview with private broadcaster CNN Türk late on Feb. 20.

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has once again called on the government to bring forward all three elections slated to take place in 2019, including local, parliamentary and presidential polls, in a bid to avoid further deterioration of democracy in the country.

“Today Turkey is not being governed. I know their [ruling Justice and Development Party – AKP’s] biggest anxiety. The economy will worsen… I challenge them,” Kılıçdaroğlu said in an interview with private broadcaster CNN Türk on Oct. 26.

Meral Akşener, an experienced right-wing politician and former interior minister, formed her long-anticipated political party under the title of the “Good Party” on Oct. 25, hinting at a run for Turkey’s presidency against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2019.

Akşener submitted a petition for the formation of the Good Party to the Interior Ministry earlier in the day before she held her first meeting with the founders and sympathizers of the new party.

The parliamentary meeting convened to discuss the harmonization of a parliamentary bylaw dispersed without any conclusion amid criticism from the opposition parties, which decided to propose their own draft plans separately.