Erdogan ally ‘elected’ new ruling party head, set to be prime minister
Yildirim says new constitution top priority
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Sunday elected Binali Yildirim, a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as its new leader to replace Ahmet Davutoglu.
Yildirim, the only candidate, received 1,405 votes from 1,470 delegates present. By AKP convention, the posts of premier and ruling party chief are held by the same person and Erdogan is due to give Yildirim the mandate to form the new government later in the day.
The 60-year-old replaces in both jobs Davutoglu, a former foreign minister who promoted his own ambitious agenda but threw in the towel after a power struggle with Erdogan.
Yildirim — a longstanding and faithful ally of Erdogan — is the only candidate at an extraordinary congress of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) that will choose the party chairman.
In a carefully-choreographed sequence of events, Erdogan is due later Sunday to hand Yildirim the mandate of prime minister, with a new government expected to be formed in the next days.
Analysts expect Yildirim to be a more pliant figure for Erdogan than Davutoglu, as the Turkish strongman presses on with his plan to create a presidential system in Turkey to further consolidate his powers. Erdogan first came to power as prime minister in 2003, switching to the presidency in 2014. If he seeks a second presidential mandate in 2019, he could stay in power until 2024.
Transport minister for almost all of the last one-and-ahalf decades, Yildirim has been Erdogan’s pointman for the implementation of his grandiose road and rail infrastructure projects.
Harmony
“There appears to be more harmony” between Yildirim and the president than in the Davutoglu era, Deniz Zeyrek, the Ankara bureau chief of the Hurriyet daily, told AFP at the congress.
“Binali Yildirim is a more technocrat figure and a man of projects,” he said.
He will be just the third party chairman in the history of the AKP — which has transformed Turkey by putting Islam at the forefront of the officially secular country’s politics — after Erdogan and Davutoglu.
Not known for charisma, Yildirim made a glitzy entrance in front of thousands at the congress, clad in football scarves and throwing carnations into the crowds to the sound of thumping Turkish pop music. Erdogan was not at the congress, with existing rules stipulating the head of state should not be a member of a party, something Erdogan may want to change in a new constitution.
But Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag made no secret of who he thought was the guiding light of the AKP.
“It’s impossible to think of the AKP as separate from our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” he said. “The AK Party is Tayyip’s party.”
In a message from Erdogan read by Bozdag, the president said: “The day I was sworn in as president, my legal bonds might have been cut (with the party) but the bonds of my heart with you have never and will never be cut.”
Despite rumours he is privately deeply embittered over his exit, Davutoglu also addressed the congress as the AKP sought to put on a show of unity.
“It is not a congress of farewell but loyalty,” Davutoglu said. “The AK Party’s unity is more important than anything for me.”
Meanwhile, Turkey’s incoming prime minister said his new government’s top priority would be a new constitution to create an executive presidency, a move that would give Erdogan the broad powers he has long sought.
Yildirim also told a special congress of the ruling AK Party on Sunday that he would continue the fight against Islamic State and Kurdish militants at home and in Syria, saying the change in leadership would not affect the campaign.
“The problems of this nation and the love of this nation are the president’s responsibility,” he said. “The new constitution will be for an executive presidential system.”