Remember How Many Seats the AKP Needed to Win to Change the Constitution?
They needed 330 to bring a new constitution to a referendum without consulting the opposition. They won 326. Well, now they have 327, because the Supreme Electoral Board has just decided that one of the Kurdish deputies can't enter because he was convicted, in 2009, of disseminating PKK propaganda. Another 30 independent Kurdish MPs are threatening to boycott the Parliament in protest. And the courts have also just ruled that two CHP deputies who were elected from prison--they're locked up as Ergenekon conspirators--will not be released.
The ban on Dicle caused strong reaction in Diyarbakır. The Democratic People’s Congress, or DTK, a PKK-influenced forum, called on the independent deputies to boycott the Parliament if any of them were stopped from being a member of it. Its co-chair Ahmet Türk said that if the YSK ruling is not corrected, that would drag the political atmosphere into conflict once again.
To many ears, that was a reference to the year-long ceasefire mode, as the covert talks between the PKK’s leader, who is imprisoned for life on the İmralı island jail in the middle of the Marmara Sea, and government security officials.
Almost an hour after the news that PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan’s lawyers were denied access, a remote controlled mine – a signature of PKK attacks – exploded near Nazimiye district in Tunceli province (the hometown of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP), killing two policemen.
Turkey's not asking my advice, but I'll give it. You had an election. Everyone who won must enter Parliament. It will be imperfect, but it will be better than anything that will happen if you try to fight this out through a judiciary trusted by no one or on the streets.
I don't expect anyone will listen to me.
I miss the Crystal of Serenity.
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May '10
Re: Remember How Many Seats the AKP Needed to Win to Change the Constitution?
"You had an election".
Something Democrats in Wisconsin, Indiana, etc refused to accept here in the good old USA after November. Maybe the DNC is advising Erdogan....
Edited on Jun 23, 2011 at 8:49amApr '11
Re: Remember How Many Seats the AKP Needed to Win to Change the Constitution?
So, if these candidates are indeed barred from entering parliament, what happens to their seats? Are they going to remain vacant, or are they going to have a special election, or do they just appoint someone?
Re: Remember How Many Seats the AKP Needed to Win to Change the Constitution?
In principle, they have to hold by-elections if the number of vacant seats in Parliament reaches five percent of the total number of seats--in other words 28 deputies--within three months. Now a CHP deputy is urging a boycott of parliament as well. The CHP is in emergency session.
Turkey may muddle through, but it's playing with fire.
Feb '11
Re: Remember How Many Seats the AKP Needed to Win to Change the Constitution?
Claire Berlinski, Ed.: In principle, they have to hold by-elections if the number of vacant seats in Parliament reaches five percent of the total number of seats--in other words 28 deputies--within three months. Now a CHP deputy is urging a boycott of parliament as well. The CHP is in emergency session.
Turkey may muddle through, but it's playing with fire. · Jun 23 at 8:56am
By-elections can only be hold if 28 deputies or 5 percent of the total number of seats holders would resignate.
Absent and the most important detail is that Parliament should have concent on the resignations. Without concent from the Parliament resignation wouldn't be valid and there wont be no by-elections.