Debates over end of PM’s term grows

Controversy surrounding the legitimacy and legality of President-elect and PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s refusal to resign from his posts as ruling party leader and prime minister has grown further, as the main opposition has appealed to the top prosecutor’s office to take action before the ruling party’s extraordinary convention scheduled for Aug. 27.

Still, lawmakers of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) from a legal background have insisted that Erdoğan would cease to be party leader and PM only when he takes his presidential oath in Parliament.

According to the Constitution, in a presidential election, the candidate who receives the absolute majority of the valid votes is assumed to have been elected as the president, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Konya deputy Atilla Kart said in an appeal to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals Aug. 12.

Kart said the elected candidate’s links with his party are assumed to have been cut and that his term as lawmaker would also be assumed to have ended.

“On this issue, nobody needs to make an additional statement personally,” Kart said, apparently referring to Erdoğan. According to figures released by the Supreme Election Board (YSK) on Aug. 11, Erdoğan won the Aug. 10 election with 51.79 percent of the vote.

It is understood from statements by party executives that Erdoğan will personally administer an extraordinary congress scheduled for Aug. 27, Kart said, arguing that this would be unconstitutional. He concluded that the chief prosecutor should appeal to the Constitutional Court to implement the law.
Only a few hours after Kart filed his appeal, CHP Deputy Parliamentary Group...