Since there is no war, Turkey’s elections cannot be postponed said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
In response to statements made by ruling AKP circles that the elections should be postponed due to the earthquake, Kilicdaroglu reminded what Turkey’s constitution says over the postponement of an election.
“The constitution is very clear. Elections can only be postponed in case of war. Since there is no war, the election cannot be postponed,” he told Yetkin Report on Tueasday.
“No one can create a legal norm of his own by inventing justifications against the Constitution and laws,” Kilicdaroglu said.
Underneath the demands for the postponement of the elections, there is the will to evade the polls, he added.
Bulent Arinc, a co-founder of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and a former speaker of the Turkish parliament on Monday said elections should “urgently” be postponed.
“At a time when we are going through probably the greatest catastrophe we have faced in our history, the country should be free of any election stress as soon soon as possible. The elections should urgently be postponed so that the state bureaucracy can focus only to mend the wounds of our citizens. This is not an option but an imperative,” Arinc wrote on Twitter.
Pro-Kurdish HDP’s imprisoned former co-chair Selahattin Demirtas on Monday also warned that according to some information he received, Erdogan instructed a group of legal experts to search for ways to postpone the elections.
“They are apparently preparing once again to defy the constitution through a fait accompli,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that disregarding the parliament and issuing a decision to postpone the elections will signify an apparent political coup.
Article 78 of Turkey’s Constitution states that the elections in the country can only be postponed for one year by the decision of the Turkish parliament in case of war. In other words, according to the constitution, elections cannot be postponed for any reason other than war.
Source: Gerçek News
