Elections are too important for Erdo?an to be left to Davuto?lu

Under normal circumstances, Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu?s target in the Turkish parliamentary elections on June 7 was expected to be to keep the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) in power.

In order to achieve that, a simple majority (276 seats) is enough in the 550-seat parliament.

But Davuto?lu has been commissioned with another mission and another target by President Tayyip Erdo?an since the presidential elections last August when he was handpicked by Erdo?an to succeed as chair of the party through a congress, in which no other candidates dared to step up, and then as prime minister thanks to the party?s majority in the parliament. That mission was a two-thirds parliamentary majority (367 seats) to vote in a new constitution based on a strong presidency with lesser checks and balances (limited to a single-chamber parliament, no strict separation of powers) or at least three-fifths (330 seats), enough to take such a super-presidency to a referendum.

Davuto?lu had no problem with the concept of a presidential system, instead of a distorted parliamentary one in Turkey. But especially after Erdo?an made it clear that there was no place for a prime minister in the presidential system in his mind, Davuto?lu resisted for a few months and did not give open support in public for such a model. Davuto?lu?s resistance was broken a few days before the candidate lists were announced on April 7. A vow for a strong presidential system had its place in the election declaration of the AK Parti, as read out by Davuto?lu on April 15.

The theme of the AK Parti for this election is to present a strong presidential system to their founding leader, Erdo?an. Abdülkadir Selvi, a columnist for pro-government Yeni ?afak, wrote on April 16...