As he himself won another election on Sunday, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli urged President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan not to “leave” as the latter implied that the upcoming local election would be his “last” campaign.
“You can’t leave, you can't leave the Turkish nation. The People’s Alliance stands with you. We want to see you as the savior leader of the new century,” Bahçeli said at the MHP’s convention in the capital Ankara, where people voted for a new administration at his party. The People’s Alliance is comprised of Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the MHP, while other smaller parties occasionally contribute to the alliance, especially in general elections.
The alliance brought Erdoğan another victory in the May 2023 general and legislative elections. But this will be the last tenure of Erdoğan as president and will end in 2028. Erdoğan is engaged in an intense election campaign for the AK Party ahead of municipal elections set for March 31.
Earlier this month, Erdoğan termed the March 31 vote his "finale" and that the outcome would be the "transfer of what we are entrusted to our brothers and sisters who will succeed me." The president has occasionally referred to the temporary nature of his tenure in Türkiye's highest office, but this was the first time he had openly spoken about it. As prime minister and president, 70-year-old Erdoğan has helmed Türkiye for more than two decades, the longest-serving politician in either role. He also led Türkiye's switch to an executive presidency system and became the first such president when the public directly elected him in the 2018 elections. Under Article 101 of the Turkish Constitution, the president's tenure is limited to five years and they can be reelected only for two consecutive tenures.
Erdoğan has two options now to have a chance of reelection, and both seem hindered by insurmountable challenges, at least for now. One option involves the amendment of the Constitution. However, for an amendment without the requirement of a public referendum, Erdoğan will need 400 votes in Parliament. The AK Party and the MHP retain 313 seats in Parliament as part of the People's Alliance. The other option is based on the current Constitution, which says the president can be nominated again if Parliament approves a renewal of elections in his/her second tenure.
Erdoğan, who sent a message of celebration to the MHP convention, said that they were honored to be in an alliance with the MHP since the 2016 coup attempt and found how much they had in common to stave off adversaries and achieve the goals of the Republic of Türkiye.
Bahçeli, 76, is a former deputy prime minister and among the longest-serving party leaders as head of the MHP, where he first took office in 1997 following the death of the party’s founder Alparslan Türkeş. Despite splits from the party that led to the foundation of two parties by two prominent members of the MHP, Bahçeli and a loyal crew of aides weathered the crises. Under Bahçeli, the MHP has scored around 11% of the vote in legislative elections in the past decade.
In Sunday’s election for chair of the party, Bahçeli garnered the votes of 1,295 delegates eligible for voting, securing another tenure.
