Priority dispute

The Commission agreed on discussing the articles 101, 86 and 69 together. However FP wants the discussions to start with amending the 69th article, where as DSP wants the priority to be given to amending the 101st article.

       Turkish National Grand Assembly (TBMM) Constitutional Commission agreed on discussing the amendment motions over articles 101, 69 and 86, together. The 101st article is about presidency elections, the 86th article is about the deputy wages after retirement and the 69th article is about closing down political parties. Head of the Commisson Ertugrul Yalcinbayir said, " The motion that gets less than 330 votes in favor will be eliminated. How much vote the motions in the finals will get is very important. The motion for the article that gets more than 330 votes in favor does not need a referandum. The sensitivity is about the 101st article that will decide whether the present president can be re-elected."

President's impartialness

       After deciding that all motions will be discussed, now there is a debate on which motion will be discussed first. FP demanded that the 69th article be discussed first where as DSP wants the priority to be given to the 101st article. Half of DYP members support FP. The issue is still not clear. DSP deputy Mehmet Ozcan said the following about the amendments, " I believe that these amendment would drag Turkey to instability. Presidency elections have always created chaos in Turkey. Decreasing the period in the presidential office to five years will mean that this chaos will be gone through more often. Our Constitution gives presidents many authorities, but less responsibilities. The president may misuse his authorities to pressure the government in order to be re-elected. Allowing him to be elected again may damage his impartialness. Amending an article of the Constitution to suit one person is against the principles of a law-state."