Türkiye election management: A focus on 2023

M. M. Ashaduzzaman Nour :
There are presidential and parliamentary elections in Türkiye on May 14, and many international media outlets have already declared these elections the most important in the world. For example, The Washington Post appeared with the headline “The World’s most important election in 2023 will be in Türkiye” on January 9, 2023. British think tank Chatham House, on the other hand, counted the elections in Türkiye among the “three most important events whose results are expected in the world this year”. This week, The Economist magazine has declared the 14 May Türkiye elections “the most important election in the world” and made it the cover story. The French weekly magazine Le Point used the phrase “On the eve of the election, the world holds its breath” (À la veille des élections, le monde retient son souffle) for the Turkish elections on the cover. So, what makes the elections in Türkiye so important? Why does the change of the president in Türkiye concern the world and especially the West so much?

The Türkiye Republic introduced an executive presidential system with the 2018 elections. Since then, the president has not only the country’s head of state, he also heads the government. The office of prime minister has been abolished. The president is directly elected by the people for a five-year term, and under the new system he has wide-ranging powers. He appoints and dismisses ministers and high-ranking civil servants at his own discretion, and he also heads the cabinet. The ministers appointed by him can, in turn, appoint governors and state representatives in the provinces and administrative districts, which allows the president to exert his influence all the way down to local government. The head of state also has the power to issue presidential decrees and to fill many posts in the judiciary, as well as in specific departments such as finance or education. The most important offices of the secret service and the powerful religious authority Diyanet also report directly to the president. Furthermore, the requirement of non-partisanship was abolished with the introduction of the presidential system.

Türkiye holds elections every five years. Presidential candidates can be nominated by parties that have passed the 5 per cent voter threshold in the last parliamentary election, or those who have gathered at least 100,000 signatures supporting their nomination. The candidate who receives more than 50 per cent of votes in the first round is elected president, but if no candidate gets a majority vote, the election goes into a second round between the two candidates who received the highest number of votes in the first round. The country is divided into 87 electoral districts with the number of seats for each district based on its population. Parliamentary elections take place at the same time as the presidential elections. Türkiye follows a system of proportional representation in parliament where the number of seats a party gets in the 600-seat legislature is directly proportional to the votes it wins. Parties must obtain no less than 7 per cent of votes – either on their own or in alliance with other parties – in order to enter parliament. The vote will take place on May 14, where candidates will cast their ballots for both elections at the same time. The second presidential ballot, if it takes place, will be held on May 28. Polls open on May 14 at 8:00 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET) and close at 5 p.m. (10 a.m. ET). Results are expected after 9 p.m. local time.
The Supreme Election Council (Yüksek Seçim Kurulu- YSK) is the highest electoral authority in Türkiye. It was established by the Deputies Election Law no. 5545 on 16 February 1950. After the 1960 coup, the Supreme Election Council gained constitutional authority by the Constitution of 1961. Its duty is to ensure that the principles and rules of the constitution are upheld. The Supreme Election Council consists of a president, six members and four substitute members from the Court of Cassation and the Council of State judges. Elections and referendum are executed with the principles of equal, secret, universal direct suffrage, open counting and tabulating principles under administration and supervision of jurisdiction. Supreme Election Council is assigned from the start till the end of elections in order to manage the order of elections with honesty, to undertake or provide undertaking all necessary transactions, to examine all electoral complaints and objections and to five final decisions on such complaints and to accept electoral minutes of members of Türkiye Grand National Assembly and minutes of presidential elections. Supreme Election Council, which takes place in “Chapter of Legislation” and executes the administration and supervision of elections, is composed of seven original and four reserve members. Six of the members are elected by general councils of Court of Cassation and five from Council of State among their members with the majority of full members with secret ballot. These members choose one president and one vice president with majority in secret ballot. Furthermore, political parties which have the four highest voting amounts in recent parliamentary general elections and political parties that have groups in Türkiye Grand National Assembly, may assign one original and one reserve representative in Council with the condition of having consent of political party leaders. These representatives attend all meetings and discussions of the Council but they are not allowed to vote.
As many experts agree, Türkiye is one of the few “pivot states” in the world. The term ‘pivot state’ refers to a nation that possesses political, military, economic, or ideational strategic assets that are highly coveted by major world powers. These states find themselves situated at the intersection of great power spheres of interest and often utilize their strategic assets to maintain relationships with multiple major powers, and occasionally even pit one against another, in order to safeguard their own interests. Any significant change in their alliances or partnerships can have significant security implications for the balance of power between the blocks and world politics. Pivotal states have always been important, but in a period where the balance of world power has shifted from unipolarity to multipolarity, the preferences of states such as Türkiye have become increasingly significant. The United States is no longer the sole and unrivaled superpower in the world. With the rise of China and the challenge posed by countries like Russia, American leadership is becoming increasingly controversial. The global balance of power is being reshaped with new elements, and in such an uncertain and unstable environment, the position Türkiye takes in which bloc becomes more important than ever before.

(The writer is a PhD researcher, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Istanbul Medeniyet Üniversitesi, Istanbul, Türkiye & Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, Bangladesh University of Professionals).