Turkish Parliament committee clears bill on election law reform
The Constitutional Committee of the Turkish Parliament attends a meeting in Ankara, Turkey, March 23, 2022. (IHA Photo)


A committee in the Turkish Parliament has approved the draft proposal "Political Parties and Election Law" to reduce the election threshold from 10% to 7% on Thursday.

The Turkish Parliament’s Constitutional Committee approved the draft presented by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) earlier this month.

The committee spent a total of 17 hours discussing the draft, Demirören News Agency (DHA) reported. AK Party Tokat Deputy Yusuf Beyazıt chaired the committee meeting.

Consisting of 15 articles, the draft was submitted to the Turkish Parliament with the joint signature of the AK Party and the MHP.

The draft proposes the elimination of the condition for political parties to establish parliamentary groups to be able to run in elections and will require parties to complete organizing in 41 provinces six months ahead of the elections.

The proposal will also restrict changing addresses before the elections to vote for relatives in local elections to prevent "electoral migrations." Instead, the electorate's address in the past year will be considered their residence.

Meanwhile, a draw is expected to be held among the three most senior elections officials to choose the head of the election board.