The Parliamentary Constitutional Committee began working on new parliamentary bylaws yesterday amid aims to speed up the legislative process in Parliament in the form of adjustments which include the introduction of new fines and penalties for parliamentary deputies who attempt to abuse or attack other deputies.
The Constitutional Committee launched discussions regarding 17 adjustments to new parliamentary bylaws after a consensus was reached between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The adjustments include new restrictions on the party proposals brought to parliament, stipulating that only the author of the proposal will be allowed to address the parliamentary chamber on behalf of the group. Previously in recent practice, the spokespersons of political parties were allowed to speak for 10 minutes. Now, under the proposed adjustments to parliamentary by-laws, any chairperson who conducts a meeting in the chamber will be allowed to allocate 1 minute of speaking time to 15 deputies. The proposed regulation, if passed will be adopted as a code provision.
Previously, it was common practice to record the minutes of a meeting and transfer the speeches of deputies to official reports in accurate, written form.
Comparatively, after the said adjustments have been made, all motions brought by the Research Commission, which could take hours to be presented, will not be read at the General Assembly. To the contrary, meetings overseen by party chairmen will also include an allotted amount of time for procedural arguments to be presented by the opposition, to be made at the discretion of the chairman presiding over the meeting.In addition, the regulations will place new restrictions on quorum and inquiry demands, which are frequently brought forward by the opposition.
Further restrictions could include a monetary fine applicable to any deputy who attempts to abuse or attack other deputies, as well as the specific action of "unfurling a banner" which will be included as a cause for reprimand according to the new regulations.
Once approved by the Constitutional Committee, the adjustments will be discussed at the General Assembly in the coming days.
So far, numerous attempts to reshape parliamentary bylaws have been made. The current parliamentary bylaws were approved on March 5, 1973, and took effect on September 1, 1973. However, since then, political parties have made efforts to change parliamentary bylaws in more than 150 instances.
