A vote to save the republic

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an is pushing harder by the day for a presidential system. He now says the parliamentary system has been put in the ante-room and it is only a presidential system that can save the republic.

He also insists there are many countries run by presidential systems and there is no reason why Turkey should not be another one. While saying this, he does not appear to make any distinctions between democratic and anti-democratic countries. He does not clarify, in other words, whether his vision is a Turkey run by a democratic presidential system ? with all checks and balances tying the president down constitutionally ? or by a system that amounts to a one-man rule.

We know from his own declarations, for example, that he finds the American system too constricting for the president, so one can assume he wants a system where the president has a free hand to do as he will. All of Erdo?an?s remarks point to one fact alone. He will not be a president that everyone in Turkey looks up to. In plain English, he has no intention of being bipartisan. He intends to be the president of those who elected him and to push for their interests alone.

By his own admission, directly prior to flying to Slovenia for an official visit on Monday, his was the guiding hand as the government prepared its electoral declaration for the upcoming June general elections, specifically regarding the presidential system?s section.

Erdo?an feels no need to reflect the political impartiality the president in Turkey has to maintain constitutionally. He is the Justice and Development Party?s (AKP) president and will only look after those who vote for him and the AKP. That, of course, leaves nearly half the population out.

Based on his now...