‘Candidates can’t contest both polls simultaneously’

By Mumin Altas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party’s deputy chairman on Thursday said running for parliamentary and presidential elections simultaneously is not possible.

"It is not possible to be a candidate for parliament’s membership and presidency simultaneously," Hayati Yazici told reporters in AK Party headquarter in Ankara.

Yazıci said the citizens will have to apply to Supreme Electoral Council to nominate their candidate, referring to the constitutional article that reads: “The citizens will be able to nominate a presidential candidate provided that he/she gets at least 100,000 signatures."

He said the electoral boards would be responsible for supervising and controlling the necessary steps about signatures and nominations.

"Supreme Electoral Council has a software to perform it," Yazici said, adding the that the citizens would apply to provincial or district election boards.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Wednesday a plan to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24, over a year before they had been scheduled, in November 2019.

On April 16, 2017, Turkey held a referendum on a constitutional reform in which the majority of voters pronounced themselves in favor of an 18-article bill switching a parliamentary system into a presidential one.

Under the constitutional reform, the number of lawmakers in the parliament will rise to 600 from 550, the presidential and the parliamentary elections will be held after every five years and the elected president will not be bound to cut ties with his or her party.

The political parties or alliance which received at least five percent of vote in last elections or 100,000 voters could nominate their candidate for the presidency.

In the new system, the president will have executive power and the title of “head of state”, representing Turkey, the unity of Turkish people and assuring the implementation of the constitution and the harmonious execution of state bodies.