Turkey weighs early election

Turkey will probably hold its 2028 elections earlier than expected, a presidential adviser said on Thursday, a move which would allow President Tayyip Erdogan to sidestep constitutional limits and run again for office.

The next presidential and parliamentary votes are currently scheduled to take place in May that year. "It is now almost clear that the 2028 elections would be held in March or April," Erdogan's adviser, Mehmet Ucum, told reporters in Ankara.

Ucum did not spell out what that meant for the president's plans. But it was the closest a senior figure has come to publicly backing a proposal floated by Erdogan's allies to reschedule the vote to let him run one more time.

Erdogan has ruled Turkey for nearly 23 years, first as prime minister and then as president.

A 2017 referendum brought in a new executive presidency system that allowed Erdogan to be re-elected as president two more times in 2018 and 2023. 

Though that new system set a two-term limit, the constitution would allow him to run again if parliament calls an election early, before he has served the whole of his last five-year term.

Turkey's opposition has also called for an early vote — but said they want it to give them a chance to challenge Erdogan's economic policies rather than to give him another chance to run.

"Reducing the issue to 'how can we get Tayyip Erdogan re-elected as President' is, from our point of view, simply unacceptable," main opposition leader Ozgur Ozel said last week.

Devlet Bahceli, leader of the nationalist MHP, which is allied with Erdogan, last week called on parliament to call for elections at "an appropriate time" to let "President Erdogan run for re-election".

A three-fifths majority of parliament — 360 of 600 lawmakers — is required to call an early election. Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its allies have 331 seats, so the conservative alliance needs 29 more votes from other parties, which could still be a challenge.