EU minister proposes 15 parliamentary seats be given to expat votes

EU Minister and Chief Negotiator Volkan Bozkır indicated Tuesday while in Germany that he will submit a proposal to Parliament that aims to restructure overseas voters as a separate constituency and dedicate 15 seats in Parliament to them. In a speech, Bozkır stressed the importance of the right for Turkish citizens currently living in foreign countries to vote.

"The right to vote is not enough for your representation and also [expats] demanded the right to stand for election and so we are making a change to law No. 298. This amendment plan was submitted to Parliament, and through this change, you will have the right to elect your own deputies who will represent your rights in Parliament."

The law for changing election rights of Turkish citizens living in foreign countries had recently been submitted by Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Deputy Mustafa Yeneroğlu and Deputy Chairman Mustafa Şentop last August. Yeneroğlu said: "As [those] overseas is not considered a separate constituency, our citizens who live abroad do not have seats in Parliament to represent themselves. If the proposal passes Parliament, the structural and legal obstruction regarding the direct representation of citizens abroad will be eliminated with this constituency." Explaining that those living abroad will be considered a separate constituency, Yeneroğlu added: "Taking 2.8 million oversees voters' proportion within the total count of voters and their breakdown for each country into consideration we are thinking that the dedication of 15 seats to citizens living abroad will provide our expats adequate representation in Parliament."