AKP may seek shift to party-backed presidential system

Nuray Babacan – ANKARA

It will take only 10 days of work for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to present their new constitutional draft to parliament, according to Mustafa Şentop, the president of the Turkish parliament’s constitution commission, who added that the ruling party may consider suggesting a semi-presidential system or a presidential post backed by a political party.

The AKP was open to all proposals which would improve the current system, Şentop said.

“If we won’t see that a presidential system is possible, we will have a proposal on a semi-presidential system or a president with a party,” he told daily Hürriyet.

“Rather than a presidential system which will not be realized, we would prefer a system based on a president who will maintain their link to a political party. We will conduct some talks on that subject,” said Şentop, who is also part of the constitutional drafting commission established within the AKP.

The reason why the work was prolonged in the previous period was former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s wish to be informed of all the work, he said. 

A mini constitutional draft which would only include this amendment was also on the ruling party’s agenda, he said. 

 “There is no need to work a lot on the new constitution. Within a week or 10 days we can present our constitutional proposal to the public,” said Şentop adding: “A rather lengthy calendar was foreseen in terms of the constitutional work that had started within the party due to the fact that Prime Minister Davutoğlu wanted to know everything on that issue. We have drafts that we had prepared previously; the academics who worked with us and the members of the commission know all the details. We can conclude this work with small touches.”

Underlining the fact that parliament would not be working for some time during the summer, Şentop said the commission could meet during that time. “There could be some changes in the commission in terms of its members but probably the core cadre will be maintained. We have work that will require only a few meetings and we will make it ready to propose in the new parliamentary season. A presidential system is our point of departure in the new constitution, as the current system is in a deadlock,” he said.