Turkey to hold snap elections on 24 June

WEB DESK

Turkey will hold snap presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 June, brought forward by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from November 2019. He has run Turkey since 2002 and will seek five more years with beefed up powers approved in a referendum last year. The idea of an early poll was initially proposed by nationalist allies. Mr Erdogan said in the televised speech the country needed the new election to rid it of the diseases of the old system.

The president said in a live broadcast that developments in Syria and elsewhere have made it urgent to switch to the new executive system in order to take steps for our country’s future in a stronger way. Mr Erdogan said he had made the decision after speaking to the head of the nationalist MHP party, Devlet Bahceli, who is expected to form an alliance with Mr Erdogan’s ruling AK Party in the parliamentary polls.

After repeatedly ruling out early elections, the government wheeled out its coalition partner on Tuesday to make a U-turn, before staging a discussion yesterday and confirming a date even earlier than expected. The accelerated timetable also means Turkey will be voting under the state of emergency imposed since the failed coup in July 2016 which attempted to oust President Erdogan.