Constitutional committee to convene Monday on alliance bill


The Parliamentary Constitutional Committee will convene Monday to discuss the alliance bill submitted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in a delayed meeting.

The committee was expected to convene earlier but decided to delay the meeting reportedly after the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) requested more time to work on its suggestions to the bill.

The committee reportedly approved the CHP's delay request, and AK Party officials said that the suggestions would be evaluated given they are sensible.

CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu instructed party officials to work on suggestions that would allay the CHP's concerns regarding the alliance bill.

To that end, the CHP formed a committee to exchange views on the bill with other parties. After a number of meetings, the committee will prepare a report and submit its suggestions to Parliament's alliance committee.

The bill was discussed in the sub-committee Tuesday under the chairmanship of AK Party Istanbul deputy and Parliamentary Constitutional Committee head Mustafa Şentop. Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül also attended the session.

Once the discussions of the constitutional committee are complete, the bill will be accepted by the subcommittee, before it is sent to the constitutional committee and eventually brought before the General Assembly.

Meanwhile, according to a survey conducted by the Ankara-based Objective Research Center (ORC), 99.2 percent of AK Party supporters would vote in favor of an alliance between the AK Party, the MHP and the Great Union Party (BBP). Around 89.4 percent of MHP's electorate also approved the alliance. The survey, which interviewed 3,420 people in 36 provinces, was conducted between Feb. 23 and 27.

In the survey, 60.8 percent of CHP voters said they would vote in favor of an alliance between the CHP and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), while 81.7 of the HDP electorate supported an alliance with the CHP.

Additionally, 58.7 percent of İYİ Party (Good Party) supporters said they would support an alliance between the CHP and Good Party, while 88.6 rejected an alliance between the Good Party, the CHP and the HDP.

Answering a question regarding the results of the upcoming presidential elections, 55.2 percent of the participants said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would win the election.