A referendum on constitutional reform in Turkey is expected to be held on 16 April, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag announced today, according to the state run news Anadolu Agency.
The vote had been expected to be earlier after parliament sent an 18-article bill on the changes to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for approval on 2 February.
“If [the bill] is approved today, tomorrow or the next day, the date is April 16,” Bozdag said in an interview with state broadcaster TRT.
He added: “April 16 looks like it is certain.”
Erdogan has 15 days to consider the changes. If he approves them, a referendum will be held on the first Sunday following a 60-day period.
The constitutional changes were first discussed when Erdogan was voted president in August 2014. The bill was passed by parliament in January, with 339 votes in favour – nine more than needed to put the proposal to a referendum.
The reforms would hand wide-ranging executive powers to the president and the post of prime minister would be abolished. The president would also be allowed to retain ties to a political party.
Other changes would see the minimum age for parliamentary candidates reduced to 18 and the number of deputies rise to 600. Simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections for a five-year term would be held in November 2019 under the new constitution.
Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.
