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https://theconversation.com/turkish-democracy-on-trial-how-erdogans-rule-has-undermined-justice-and-weakened-his-rivals-283986>
"There has been unrest across Turkey after an appeals court annulled the
results of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) 2023 leadership election,
deposing the popular winner Özgür Özel.
Özel’s removal, based on the the court’s decision that the CHP’s 38th congress
was void from the beginning, overturning an earlier court finding rejecting
allegations of electoral irregularities, has left the CHP with a 77-year-old
party veteran, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, as interim leader.
Kılıçdaroğlu has previously led the party to five election losses – including
the 2023 presidential election in which he was defeated by Turkey’s president,
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, by about five percentage points.
This latest political crisis to rock Turkey fits into a broader pattern of
democratic backsliding and the systemic weakening of the opposition under the
rule of Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). Over the years, AKP
governments have undermined the justice system, stifled press freedom and
curtailed human rights in Turkey.
The next presidential and parliamentary elections are not scheduled until 2028,
and Erdoğan – who will be 74 – would be ineligible to run at that stage under
constitutional term limits. After completing three terms as Turkey’s prime
minister between 2003 and 2014, he became the country’s first popularly elected
president in 2014. He was then re-elected in both 2018 and 2023 – the maximum
number of terms allowed under Turkey’s constitution.
While in office, Erdoğan has significantly strengthened the power of the
presidency. Following a constitutional referendum in 2017, the Turkish
political system changed from a parliamentary democracy to an executive
presidency. This gave the president executive powers, including the power to
initiate or amend laws, to ratify treaties, to appoint and dismiss
vice-presidents, ministers and high-ranking public executives, and to decide on
the use of Turkish Armed Forces.
US-based pro-democracy group Freedom House criticised the move, saying that
Erdoğan and his AK Party were now able to “assert partisan control over the
Supreme Electoral Council (YSK), the judiciary, national policy and the
media”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
