President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that the Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) women branch will play a vital role in the 2019 presidential election.

Praising them for their efforts in a closed-door meeting held last week, President Erdoğan said, "I believe that our women's branch will shoulder us in the most correct way in the 2019 elections."

According to the party sources, he urged the party's women branch to continue carrying out favorable work, adding that the quality of services was as important as the number of services. "Quantity and quality should be merged," Erdoğan said.

He added that the women's branch is a very important part of the AK Party and that women should play an important role in politics. "Politics is not an affair that is conducted by the half of society," he underlined.As part of its rejuvenation efforts, Erdoğan decided that women's role should increase in the AK Party, instructing that women should make up 30 percent of new local administrations. He welcomed the role of the women's branch in ruling party's structure. "The women's branch is an important power of our party; no other party has such a strong branch," he said, stressing that his party's women's branch is the best in the country.

Speaking to the AK Party deputies in a meeting on rejuvenation and alteration, Erdoğan said on Nov. 9 that the AK Party is a reformist party that can adapt itself to developments without wandering from national and moral values. Erdoğan explained the ruling party's perspective, saying: "I underline that the AK Party is a party that makes reforms, alters its structure and develops itself. ... It is not a status quo party." Erdoğan said the AK Party should update itself according to developments and be a party that faces challenges by upgrading its structure.The AK Party women's branch will hold a meeting on Dec. 5, on the 83th anniversary of the enfranchisement of women, where Erdoğan is also expected to deliver a speech.

'Binali Yıldırım as group president in Parliament'

The AK Party has re-elected Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım as its group president while also keeping its roster of group deputy chairmen unchanged.

Amid an ongoing reshuffle in the party, ahead of the 2019 general election, Kayseri Deputy Mustafa Elitaş, Amasya Deputy Naci Bostan, Aksaray Deputy İlknur İnceöz, Çanakkale Deputy Bülent Turan and İstanbul Deputy Mehmet Muş all retained their positions as group deputy chairmen of the AK Party.

Within the framework of the rejuvenation process, the AK Party brought some changes in its bureau of the assembly as Erdoğan Özegen and Ömer Serdar were replaced by Ceyda Bölünmez Çankırı and Bayram Özçelik as the party's Parliament authority and secretary member, respectively.