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AK Party renews signature list for reform package to end debate
The package was once again presented to the deputies for signatures yesterday, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan being one of those to put his signature on the package. The government submitted the package to Parliament with 265 signatures. The government has also reportedly made some minor changes to some articles included in the package -- those on the structure of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) and one on party closures.
Speaking to reporters at Esenboğa Airport as he left for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Prime Minister Erdoğan said a change was also made in the package on the military administrative judiciary, adding that he and members of the Cabinet had signed the package. Erdoğan’s signature was not included in the initial signature list. The prime minister once again underlined that what they were aiming for with the reform package was an independent and an impartial judiciary.
Soon after the government presented the first proposal to Parliament last Tuesday, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) started a debate alleging that Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Şahin’s signature was among the signatures on the package sponsored by the AK Party, which is against parliamentary bylaws since the speaker should be impartial. Although both Şahin and AK Party officials denied the claims, uneasy with the ongoing debates on the issue, the AK Party decided to withdraw the proposal to present it once again after changing the signature list.
Fifty AK Party deputies petitioned Parliament yesterday saying they would like to withdraw their signatures from the package. One of these deputies, AK Party parliamentary group deputy chairman Suat Kılıç said yesterday that they had withdrawn their signatures to prevent a package “which aims to improve democracy, the rule of law and freedoms” from being overshadowed by a signature row. He said they are still behind the package but that the signature debate had blocked discussions of the package’s essence. “The deputies stand firm behind the nation’s will to amend the Constitution. We want to remove the shadow over the package and present new signatures,” he said.
Kılıç also added that the discussion of the package in Parliament’s Constitutional Commission would be delayed because of the recent developments although the commission had been scheduled to discuss the package on Wednesday. The head of the commission, Burhan Kuzu, announced yesterday that the meeting of the commission had been cancelled.
While government officials announced that the move was intended to put an end to procedural debates over the package’s submission to Parliament, opposition parties directed strong criticism at the government. CHP parliamentary group deputy chairman Hakkı Süha Okay said the package was “injured” and called on the government to apologize to the nation.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) parliamentary group deputy chairman Oktay Vural also termed the latest move of the government “disrespect” to the nation. “It is obvious that the government was involved in an act contradicting laws. A government in Turkey has dared to present a constitutional amendment package with fake signatures. This shows Turkey is ruled in an authoritarian way,” he said.
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