With the country's change in constitutional amendments approved, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) will now focus on revising parliamentary bylaws, as a priority, to increase the workflow efficiency in Parliament.
Parliament will go into overdrive for the next six months as it will work on adjustment laws, and parliamentary bylaws in particular, which have long been criticized for stalling parliamentary processes and often bringing the adoption of new laws to a halt.
The parties in Parliament are expected to make adjustments in the bylaws in accordance with the new executive presidential system. Sources within the AK Party previously stated that preparations were being made for the adjustment laws.
Speaker of Parliament İsmail Kahraman stressed the significance of focusing on changing the parliamentary bylaws as well.
Speaking a couple days after the April 16 referendum, Kahraman said the first priority for Parliament will be the bylaws.
"There are works from the past. The works on bylaws must be completed as the Constitution requires. The first priority is the bylaws. God willing, we will put the [changing of the] bylaws first on our list."
The speaker also hinted that the AK Party may likely be seeking ways to reconcile with the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) to change the bylaws. The CHP, however, is expected to disagree with the AK Party on many issues.
While Turkey's ruling parties always complained about the lengthy process Parliament went through to pass laws, oppositions grew frustrated with the lack of a control mechanism. Political sources claim that the AK Party has come to common terms with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on changing the bylaws. The two parties brought the constitutional amendment to Parliament in the first place. The AK Party and the MHP campaigned in favor of the constitutional changes in the run-up to the referendum as well.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ recently provided details about the process of changing the bylaws. Speaking exclusively to Daily Sabah after the referendum, Bozdağ said: "Most of these laws will be revised within this six-month period, instead of a complete overhaul, we will be making changes that are required for harmonization. As this is the case, sometimes we will change certain words, certain expressions, and certain articles. We will do a scan for this process and will see how much change we have to make."
A referendum was held in Turkey on April 16, where constitutional changes were approved after 51 percent of the people voted in favor of the amendment.
So far, there have been many attempts to reshape the parliamentary bylaws. The current parliamentary bylaws were approved on March 5, 1973, and took effect on Sept. 1, 1973. However, parties have made efforts to change the bylaws more than 150 times since.
