The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is determined to continue to discuss a controversial bill of law despite it being rejected by opposition lawmakers' votes on Wednesday.
AK Party Group Deputy Chairperson Cahit Özkan reacted to the attitude of Deputy Chairperson of the Parliament Haydar Akar on Thursday, during a meeting concerning the security investigation and background checks law proposal at the General Assembly of the Turkish Parliament.
"We will continue the negotiations of the proposal from where we left off, and we will eliminate the attempts to abuse the national will,” Özkan said.
Speaking at a press conference held in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM), Özkan said that Akar acted with bias during the meeting of the law proposal in the General Assembly. Özkan said, "We witnessed that (main opposition Republican People’s Party) CHP Deputy Chairperson of the Assembly Haydar Akar set aside the principle of impartiality while doing his duty and he was siding with the CHP by designing 'representation and organization' and he was caught in the flawed form.”
The negotiations of the "security investigation and background checks law proposal" started last week in Parliament and continued yesterday until voting took place whether to pass the bill or not.
The bill, which requires security investigation and background checks for those who will enter public office for the first time, was put to vote under the direction of Akar. Akar counted the acceptance and rejection votes in the "sign (by raising hands)" and since the voting was held when the participation from the AK Party and its ally the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) was low, it was eventually declared that the proposal was rejected.
The disagreement over the case caused a stir within Parliament on Thursday as some lawmakers caused slight unrest.
In accordance with the TBMM's bylaw, rejected bills cannot be submitted again in the same legislative term, unless one year has passed. For the first time in many years, a bill was rejected in Parliament by opposition voters.
Özkan shared the relevant articles of the Rules of Procedure on how voting is held in the General Assembly and he pointed out the irregular attitude of Akar, which he claimed was due to instructions from CHP headquarters, was also reflected in the official reports of the Assembly.
Özkan said Akar attempted to prevent the negotiations on the bill proposal by violating the national will and the will of the Assembly, saying: “Our nation knows them well. In this sense, we have deciphered and made our objection to this arrangement that the CHP deputy chairperson of the Assembly set up with the deputies and group deputies. Today, we will continue the negotiations of the security investigation and background checks law proposal, and we will eliminate the attempts to abuse the national will.”
CHP: We will continue to reject
CHP Group Deputy Chairperson Özgür Özel, on the other hand, reacted to the meeting of the Presidential Board of Parliament regarding the result of the voting to pass the articles of the proposal upon the invitation of the speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Mustafa Şentop at the press conference. Arguing that Şentop was trying to get the voting done again and to get a proposal put back on the agenda, even though the records regarding yesterday's meeting of the General Assembly were clearly included in all the reports and images, Özel said: "He is trying to establish domination with an extremely tense and angry manner. We hope that the Presidential Board will not leave another black mark on the political history of the Assembly with the AK Party and MHP signatures.”
