The new legislative year of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye began yesterday with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's opening address. Even if the elections are held on schedule, they will, one way or another, be on Parliament's agenda in the new term. Many debates will somehow be linked to the elections.
We should expect this to be a busy legislative year for Parliament. We are now in the implementation phase of the terror-free Türkiye process. The framework law was adopted during the previous term through a historic consensus. During this term, as part of the process to end terrorism, a parliamentary commission will oversee the monitoring process.
“Parliament will also pass any new legal arrangements that may be needed. Recently, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairperson Devlet Bahçeli and other MHP politicians explained, along with their reasoning, why the political parties and election laws should be comprehensively rewritten from scratch and brought fully into line with the presidential system.”
Türkiye's electoral legislation is highly fragmented and contains contradictory provisions. For example, if a decision is made to renew elections, the presidential election law and the parliamentary election law say different things about when the elections should be held. Therefore, consolidating the fragmented electoral legislation under a single framework, eliminating these contradictions and ensuring full compatibility with the presidential system are important.
Second, there are various debates about political parties. A new party is founded every day. Among countries governed by a presidential system, we rank third in the world in the number of parties in Parliament. In recent years, alliances have become almost as important as parties. Because of the current electoral legislation, small parties resort to bargaining politics beyond their actual strength, which devalues politics. At the same time, some parties make politics more populist to become kingmakers. If all 41 parties currently eligible to run were to enter the election, it is not even clear how the ballot papers would be printed.
In this context, renewing the political parties law and the election law may be on Parliament's agenda in the coming legislative year. In his opening speech, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan devoted considerable attention to the need for a new, inclusive and civilian constitution.
At present, there are both a good opportunity and some challenges when it comes to drafting a new constitution.
Concerning the opportunity, a historic Türkiye consensus emerged in Parliament when the process law was adopted. This consensus could make it possible to draft a new constitution. The challenge, however, is that with a year and a half remaining until the elections, some circles will argue there is not enough time to draft a constitution.
Again, some populist political parties may resort to manipulation and disinformation by linking the drafting of a new constitution to the terror-free Türkiye process. Anticipating that some populist parties could produce such forced interpretations, Erdoğan, while speaking about the need for a new, civilian and inclusive constitution, once again stressed that there should be no concerns about the first four articles.
The new legislative year will also address Türkiye's economic security and the regulations needed in light of the recent fund crisis. The main framework of Erdoğan's speech yesterday was "competition within consensus." Preserving political differences is undoubtedly the richness of democracy. Finding common ground on national interests, however, should be seen as the responsibility of politics.
In recent years, a new understanding of politics has been kept on the agenda, from "strengthening the home front" to the "grand Türkiye consensus," and from leaving "front politics" behind to embracing the concept of "competition within consensus." This political approach is important. It does not exclude political competition between parties, nor does it mean that parties must think alike on every issue. Acting with a sense of responsibility to meet the nation’s expectations and make people’s lives easier is an imperative that cannot be neglected. The politics of polarization prevailed for a long time. Now, it is necessary to demonstrate that a politics of "competition within consensus" is possible.
