New members of top judicial body to be elected in October

ANKARA

Members of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), will change with an election in October when the current members’ term in office expires.

Members of Turkey’s top judiciary body, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), will change with an election in October when the current members’ term in office expires.

The Supreme Election Board (YSK) has decided on the timetable of the elections, which will officially be announced in the Official Gazette on Aug. 26.

Some 11,000 judges and prosecutors will elect new members to the HSYK, voting for 10 primary and six alternate members. The body’s general assembly has a total of 22 members and four of them will be assigned by the president, as well as academics and lawyers, which will see the newly elected members on duty for four years.

The Justice Ministry chairs the HSYK, while the undersecretary of the ministry is assigned as a natural member.

Following a constitutional referendum in 2010, the structure of the HSYK was reshaped.

The Judges and Prosecutors Association (YARSAV) have declared their list of candidates for the HSYK board, while the Jurists Union has been determining their list through surveys.

The government has drafted optional plans to avoid facing problems while electing the new HSYK members, in which it argues that followers of the U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, whom they accuse of plotting to overthrow the government, are dominant.

The plans include legal amendments before October in a bid to change the election system in a way that would break the dominancy of Gülen’s followers.