Turkey Written Report

The political system:

The political system in Turkey is a democratic parliamentary republic system, which is based on
social justice and the rule of law in a secular constitution, allowing multiple political parties.
The Turkish language is the official language of the state. The flag is composed of a white crescent
and a white star on a red background, the political capital of the country is Ankara, while many
consider Istanbul as the economic capital of the country.
The President is the head of state. According to constitutional amendments to the Turkish
Constitution system, starting from 2014, the president of Turkey will be elected, by direct popular
vote, as a President of the Turkish Republic for a period of five years renewable once. Noting that
the old system stated that the election of the president would be based on the voices of Parliament,
for a one period of seven years.
Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, while the legislative
power is vested in the parliament. As for the judiciary, it is independent of the executive and the
legislature power, and the Constitutional Court is responsible of the task of looking at the
compatibility of laws and decrees with the constitution.
Prime Minister is elected by the parliament through a vote of confidence in the cabinet, and it is often
that the chairman of the party, which has the largest number of seats in Parliament will be the prime
minister.
Parliament consists of 550 members, which are elected by the people every four years, representing
81 electoral regions in the Turkish province.
The electoral system has been organized in the Constitution, where the conduct of the parliamentary
elections or local (municipal) for a period of one day, and considered each province is an electoral
district, and every political party able to overcome the barrier of 10% of the electoral votes gain
access to Parliament with a number of members of parliament according to the votes obtained
(system of proportional representation).
Of the main political parties participating in the current session of the Turkish Parliament: Justice and
Development Party (the ruling conservative), the Republican People's Party (left- wing - the main
opposition) party, the MHP (National Conservative) the HDP (National Kurdish).
The President power of Turkey
The President of Turkey before year 2007, was elected by the Parliament but with the
amendment in mentioned year (2007), the President now will be elected by the citizens. The
President must be required by the age of 40 and must be a bachelor’s degree holder. The
President is mandated the oversee of implementation of constitution and represent the country’s
unity, and internationally and treaties (national and international). The President also
promulgates laws, sending back the bills to the parliament for referendum and reconsideration,
calls for new Parliamentary election, appoints and receive a resignation of a Prime Minister, and
appoints and dismisses ministers with the Prime Minister’s advice.
The Prime Minister power of Turkey
and the Parliamentary
-The Prime Minister of Turkey stands as the head of government with the practice of head of the
party with the most of the deputies in the Parliament.
The Prime Minister and the his/her councils were appointed by the President, even the Prime
Minister had the power to appoint them (the ministers).
He/She heads the oversee of government policy implementation, the councils of ministers who
oversee the various sectors of agriculture, tourism, environment and labor and every minister is
responsible for each jurisdiction and accountable to the Prime Minister who can submit a
proposal to a particular minister which can be dismiss by the head of state

- The Prime Minister of Turkey is the head of the government of Turkey. The prime
minister is also part of the executive branch of the Turkish government, along
with the cabinet of Turkey and the President of Turkey. The prime minister is the
leader of the cabinet and also the leader of the main political party or coalition in
the Turkish parliament. The prime minister can suggest to the president which
ministers to dismiss from office and is also the person in charge of supervising
the implementation of government policy, along with the Council of Ministers.
.

A SHORT VIEW FOR TURKISH’ ELECTION SYSTEM

The election system in Turkey varies from General, Local, and Presidential elections every 4 and
5 years, and 5 years respectively.

• In General Election

The D’Hondt method, a party-list proportional representation to elect a numbers of parliament

of 600 members to the grand national assembly of 87 electoral districts that elect the different numbers
of MPs defending on their population.

• Local Elections

The elections for Metropolitan and District Mayors, Provincial and Municipal Councillors.

The neighbourhood presidents and their village councils elected through a first-past-the-post
system, with the winning candidate in each municipality elected by a simple majority.

• Presidential Elections

A 2 round system, with the 2 top candidates contesting a run-off election 2 weeks after the
initial election, and should no candidate win at least 50%+1 of the popular votes.
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey has 600 members, elected for a four-year term (five years
before the 2007 referendum) by a system based on closed list proportional representation according
to the D'Hondt method. To participate in the distribution of seats, a party must obtain at least 10% of
the votes cast at the national level (the highest electoral threshold in any proportional system in the
world) as well as a percentage of votes in the contested district according to a complex formula and
votes for parties not seated are redistributed to the party that won the most votes. Independent
candidates who receive more than 10% of the votes cast in a province are also seated and in the
2007 and 2011 elections members of the Democratic Society/Peace and Democracy Party evaded
the threshold by running as independents and winning about 5% of the seats.
The president was elected for a seven-year term by the parliament prior to the 2007 constitutional
changes, and will be elected for at most two consecutive five-year terms in the future.
Turkey has a multi-party system, with two or three strong parties and often a fourth party that is
electorally successful. Since 1950, parliamentary politics has been dominated
by conservative parties. Even the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) tends to identify itself
with the "tradition" of Democrat Party (DP). The leftist parties, most notable of which is
the Republican People's Party(CHP) draw much of their support from big cities, coastal regions,
professional middle-class, civil service, military officers, and the religious minority of Alevi.

Three strong Political party in turkey

Justice and Development Party

Democrat Party

Republican Peoples party

Legislative power of Turkey

Legislative power rests in the National Assembly, a 550-member unicameral body.
Members are elected by popular vote to five-year terms under a system of proportional
representation. Political parties must receive at least 10 percent of the vote to gain
representation in the assembly. Extremist parties are banned, as are parties promoting
religious causes. All citizens aged 18 or older are entitled to vote.

Central and local governments of Turkey

The constitution divides executive power between the prime minister and the
president. The head of government is the prime minister, who represents the majority party
or coalition in parliament. The prime minister selects a cabinet, called the Council of Ministers,
and is responsible for carrying out government policy. The president, as head of state, is
chosen by parliament for a seven-year term. The president’s executive powers are
substantial. They include the authority to dissolve parliament, to approve the prime minister,
to veto legislation or to propose legislative changes, to ask the constitutional court to rule on
the constitutionality of legislation, and to submit constitutional amendments to the people in
popular referenda.
For administrative purposes, Turkey is divided into 81 provinces, called vilayets. Each
province is governed by a provincial governor, who is appointed by the central government
and is responsible to the minister of the interior. The provinces are divided into counties,
which are in turn divided into districts. There are also locally elected assemblies at the
province, county, district levels.
Autonomous local governments, on the other hand, function according to the principle
of decentralization and can take decisions and actions independent of thecentral government.
The central government can exercise its power of adminis- trative tutelage only on local
governments.