On Today's Vote and Tuesday's MPC

TURKEY - In Brief 20 May 2016 by Murat Ucer

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In a rather surprising development, the Turkish parliament voted today to lift the immunities of some 139 MPs from prosecution. (Click here and here for basic media coverage). Recall that the first round of voting was held on Tuesday, but the parliament had failed to pass the two proposed amendments to the Constitution, the first one of which is specifically on the lifting of immunities. In today’s round, some 373 MPs voted in favor of the first article, which is above the critical two-thirds or 367 threshold required to change the Constitution. This suggests that some 15-20 CHP MPs must have voted in favor of the amendment in the second-round of voting. The majority of the MPs whose immunities will now be lifted (51) are from the pro-Kurdish rights party HDP, which has a total of 59 MPs in parliament. The second article -- that bans appeals to the Constitutional Court -- was also approved with 374 votes in favor. The most likely course of action for AKP now is to call by-elections in order to garner a minimum of 330 seats in parliament, which is the number of votes required to take the Constitution/Executive Presidency to a referendum. Here is what my colleague Atilla (who is on a short-leave) had written at last Sunday’s Tracker: “If the amendments pass and then large number of HDP deputies are arrested, AKP could call by-elections hoping to fill their seats with its own members, but anecdotal evidence suggests HDP remains popular in the Kurdish provinces. It is more likely that AKP would utilize the courts to take charismatic members of HDP out of the game in case it decides to go to early elections. Such a move is not without collateral damage. Kurds are likely to ...