Poll: Public support for constitutional change at 55 percent

Public support for a constitutional change currently stands at 55 percent, a recently published poll suggests.

According to a poll conducted by MAK consultancy, 55 percent of the interviewees said they are in favor of a new constitution and will say yes in a possible referendum.

While 55 percent were in favor of the constitutional change, 29 percent said no and 16 percent abstained from declaring a certain point of view.

MAK consultancy also asked the interviewees for which political party they would vote in a hypothetical snap election. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) stood at 51.9 percent and the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) at 24.7 percent.

While the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) increased its votes to 13.4 percent, the pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) failed to pass the 10 percent national election threshold, standing at 7.2 percent.

According to the new proposed draft constitution, the president will be able to continue with a party affiliation, which is one of the most significant changes to the presidential system, while in the current constitution the president is not allowed to continue their party affiliation and should have a non-partisan stance.

According to the Turkish constitution, constitutional changes can be directly passed only if it is approved by two-thirds of the deputies in Parliament, which corresponds to 367 of the 550 parliamentarians. Currently, the AK Party has 317 seats in Parliament, while the MHP has 40; meaning the two parties do not hold enough seats in Parliament to pass the proposal directly.

In spite of this, if the proposal receives between 330 and 366 votes, the proposed constitutional change can be brought to a referendum.