Turkish justice minister sees 'plot' behind debate on electoral threshold

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has torn into the Constitutional Court for its decision to consider lifting the infamous 10 percent election threshold for legislative representation, dubbing the Court's move an "open intervention into the 2015 elections."

Bozdağ, speaking in an interview on Dec. 4, underlined that any implementation of a probable decision by the Constitutional Court would solely be up to the Supreme Election Board (YSK), while noting his conviction that such a decision should not be implemented in the run-up to the June 2015 parliamentary elections.

The appeal concerning the matter was filed in June 2014 and the issue came onto the agenda in late November after the election process had de facto begun, Bozdağ told the private Kanal 24 news channel.

"There is only six months left until the election; what is the use of launching a debate on elections within six months? I think about it; is there some ‘engineering' aimed for the 2015 election? But the courts must not engage in engineering targeting the elections and must not regulate politics," he said.

"When the Constitutional Court takes a step that would have an impact on the formation of the Parliament in Turkey and on people's choices in the run-up to the 2015 elections, it means that political engineering is coming into play through the Court," Bozdağ added.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş similarly suggested that the Constitutional Court's review was "meaningful in terms of timing." 

Speaking in an interview with private NTV news channel late Dec. 3, Kurtulmuş argued that the Court should not have the authority to "control the legislative body" and instead should simply review whether laws are constitutional or not.

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