Delay elections at chambers: TOBB

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

TOBB President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu speaks at an Istanbul event in this file photo.

The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) has requested a delay in the upcoming chambers and bourses elections, in a bid to study the recent complaints of a number of chambers and bourses regarding the integration of Turkish companies into the NACE classification system.

NACE, the statistical classification of economic activities, is a system that the TOBB has been working on to integrate the Turkish business system for a while. Many companies have been complaining that the NACE system was blocking some members from being candidates. 

According to the new system, potential candidates need to be elected initially from among their companies’ class, which many company owners think is unfair.

A few weeks ago, Turkey’s Constitutional Court lifted a code that had limited the duty periods of heads of chambers and bourses to two terms in a row, giving the green light to the re-election of a number of business leaders.

The elections should have been held at the end of March, but the TOBB administration has demanded they be delayed for a month. The government holds the right to delay the elections up to eight months, so it is not clear how long a delay would be. 

The TOBB is the largest business organization in Turkey, with around 1.2 million members.