Commission of Table of Six to study alternatives for parliamentary elections

New commission established by the Table of Six will study the alternatives in order to win the parliamentary majority required to amend the Constitution in the Parliament of Türkiye (TBMM) in the coming elections.

Three hundred sixty MPs are needed in the 600-member TBMM in order to make amendments to the Constitution.

The new election alliance commission was established according to a decision taken in the meeting of Table of Six on January 5 when the chairpersons of the six parties met.

The commission is expected to hold its first meeting this week and to determine the provinces and electoral districts where they should run as an alliance, where there should and should not be joint lists, and the provinces and districts that the parties should run on their own or in alliances of two or three parties in order to get the best results.

The Commission is going to study the alternatives that may be used in order to obtain the majority that can make amendments to the Constitution at the parliament and submit the report they prepare to the chairpersons of the six political parties.

New election law

The new election law will be in force in the parliamentary and presidential elections to be held in Türkiye, if the election is held at a date later than April 6.

The election law was amended on April 6, 2022, and the new provisions enter into force on April 6 this year.

The electoral threshold was dropped from the previous 10% to 7% and the method of calculation of seats that the political parties entering elections in alliances changed with the amendments made in April last year.

According to the previous law, seats were first distributed to alliances in proportion to their respective voting rates and then distributed within the alliances.

With the new law, the seats will be distributed directly to the parties in proportion to the votes they receive in the election district, provided the alliance they are in exceeds the threshold.

With this new method, there will be "de facto thresholds" even higher than 10 percent in some provinces, say the critics. (PE)