Turkish parliament chief dismisses objections to President Erdogan's candidacy in May elections

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) — With less than two months left for presidential and parliamentary elections in Türkiye, the country's parliament speaker has dismissed legal objections to the candidacy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In an article published in late March, Mustafa Sentop, who is also a professor in law, gave a detailed response to criticism directed at the arguments of an earlier article by him concerning whether the country's current leader can run in the coming May 14 elections.

Legal objections to Erdogan's candidacy center on a constitutional two-term limit. While Erdogan has won two previous presidential elections in 2014 and 2018, proponents say he can run again since the first vote happened before the country transitioned to a presidential system from a parliamentary one after a 2017 referendum.

Sentop said that on the issue of whether elections held before the system shift should count, the meaning and the scope of the term limit needed to be taken into consideration.

He underlined that the constitutional amendment approved in the 2017 referendum had changed the meaning of the office of the presidency in Türkiye.

The amendment introduced "several changes in the Constitution amending the meaning of 'the executive branch' and equating it with the notion of 'the President'," he said.

"Once the terminological meaning of the term 'the President of the Republic' is determined as the executive branch, it can be argued that the rule that 'a person may be elected as the President of the Republic for two terms at most' should be understood as, 'a person may be elected as (representing) the executive branch for two terms at most'," Sentop added.

He stressed that in the coming election, the two-term limit for presidential office would be in force as it appears in the Constitution's amended version and that only one presidential election had been held in the country since the amendment came into force.

Thus, "no one can be prohibited from running as a candidate for the 2023 presidential elections depending on this rule," said the parliamentary speaker.

Türkiye will head to ballot boxes on May 14 to elect its president and members of parliament.

Voting is scheduled to start at 8.00 a.m. local time (0500GMT) and end by 5.00 p.m (1400GMT).

The Turkish election board set May 28 as the date for a possible runoff if no candidate can secure a majority in the first round.