Voters prepare to move Turkey ‘full force’ into a one-man state
Erdogan has been mainly a ceremonial head of state — exerting his will on Turkey through force of personality rather than constitutional right. But if he retakes the presidency, he will be formally granted sweeping new executive powers — effectively codifying into law the authoritarian way in which he has informally governed Turkey.
On Sunday, Turkey will turn from a parliamentary democracy into a presidential one, thanks to a constitutional referendum that passed narrowly last year amid accusations of vote-rigging.
The new system will abolish the post of prime minister and transfer executive power to the president, give the newly empowered president the right to issue decrees and exert far greater influence over the judiciary and the civil service.
The new version of the Parliament will have some ability to curb the president’s actions. But if Erdogan and the Justice and Development Party win both the presidential and parliamentary elections, power will be centralized around Erdogan in an manner unprecedented in Turkey’s democratic history.
“We’re moving in full force into a new system — some would call it a new regime,” said Soli Ozel, an international relations professor at Kadir Has University in Istanbul.
Erdogan’s main challenger is Muharrem Ince, a fiery former physics teacher from the Republican People’s Party, a centrist and secularist political grouping that has historically seemed removed from the struggles of ordinary people in Turkey’s rural heartlands.
Ince is polling at just below 30 percent, some 20 percentage points behind Erdogan but 20 ahead of the next two challengers, Meral Aksener and Demirtas.