President Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling AK Party will keep their grip on power when an interim government is formed next week to lead Turkey to a snap election, with the cabinet set to be dominated by loyalists.
Mr Erdogan will ask prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu to form the temporary power-sharing government early next week, senior officials said, after two months of efforts to agree a coalition with opposition parties ahead of an August 23rd deadline failed.
The AK Party, founded by Mr Erdogan, lost its majority in a June 7th election for the first time since coming to power in 2002, complicating Mr Erdogan’s ambition of forging a more powerful presidency and plunging Turkey into political uncertainty not seen since the fragile coalition governments of the 1990s.
"Whomever I give the mandate to, that person will form an election government with a cabinet from inside and if necessary from outside parliament," Mr Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul after Friday prayers.
“On November 1st, God willing, Turkey will experience a repeat election,” he said.
Mr Erdogan’s hopes of changing the constitution and ushering in a presidential system akin to the United States or France hinge on a strong AKP majority in parliament. A fresh election organised under an AKP administration was the outcome he was always believed to want.
Under the constitution, all parties should be represented in any interim “election government” according to the seats they hold in parliament. But Turkey is in untested waters – never before has such an arrangement been necessary.
Such a government would mean power being shared between four political parties with deep ideological divides. The secularist CHP and the nationalist MHP have said they will not take part, while the pro-Kurdish HDP has said it will only do so if it has a free hand to choose its nominees, which is far from clear.
“I think the HDP wants its co-leaders to be in the cabinet. But there is nothing legally-binding about this request,” said Mehmet Sahin from the Institute of Strategic Thinking, an Ankara-based think-tank.
Should opposition parties decline to nominate members for cabinet positions, their places can be taken by candidates outside parliament. No vote of confidence is required for the cabinet to then function, leaving the opposition impotent.
Mr Erdogan’s chief adviser on the constitution, Burhan Kuzu, said a new government must be formed within five days of the mandate being given and that the president would have some say over the nominees.
“If the HDP decides not to participate, then independent names will be assigned,” he said. “The prime minister will determine the government and present it to the president for his signature. This will be done latest by August 31st.”
According to the seat distribution in parliament, the main opposition CHP should get six or seven in the 25-member cabinet, while MHP and HDP would each be entitled to three.
The “independent” candidates who take up their positions, should the opposition parties decline to take part, could include bureaucrats and former AKP members loyal to the ruling party.
A senior AKP official said both Mr Erdogan and Mr Davutoglu agreed on the need to take Turkey “swiftly and sturdily” to a new election and that the interim government would serve that purpose alone, rather than seek to execute new policies.
“We’re talking about a government that will work for 15-20 days and a cabinet that will at most meet once or twice,” said HDP spokesman Ayhan Bilgen, saying his party’s executive committee would meet next week to discuss the election cabinet. – (Reuters)