Turkish Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said Friday that an election will be held in 2028 “to re-elect” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as senior figures in the ruling party discuss a legal route for him to seek another term.
Gürlek made the remarks during a meeting with members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the southern province of Adana.
“In 2028, an election will be held to re-elect our president,” Gürlek said.
He told party members they would have an important role in the campaign and called on them to explain the government’s “Century of Turkey” program to voters.
Gürlek did not give an election date or explain how Erdoğan would become eligible to run again.
His remarks came one day after chief presidential adviser Mehmet Uçum said Erdoğan would be a candidate in the next presidential election for what he called his final term.
Uçum proposed April 16, 2028, as a possible election date and said parliament would first need to vote to hold early elections.
That parliamentary step is important because Turkey’s constitution limits a person to two terms as president.
Article 116, however, allows a president serving a second term to run once more if parliament itself decides to hold early presidential and parliamentary elections.
Such a decision requires the support of three-fifths of parliament, or at least 360 of its 600 members.
Uçum argued that parliament could use that provision shortly before the end of Erdoğan’s current term, clearing the way for another candidacy.
Erdoğan was first elected president in 2014, when Turkey still had a parliamentary system, and won presidential elections again in 2018 and 2023 after a constitutional overhaul created an executive presidency.
The government has treated the 2018 election as Erdoğan’s first term under the current presidential system, making the term that began after his 2023 victory his second.
Erdoğan’s eligibility was challenged by opposition parties before the 2023 election, but Turkey’s election board allowed him to run.
Uçum said Thursday that Erdoğan’s candidacy in the next election was politically settled and that the remaining issue was completing the constitutional procedure through parliament.
Erdoğan, who served as prime minister from 2003 to 2014 and has been president since then, has not announced a date for the 2028 election or detailed the parliamentary process needed for another candidacy.
This article is republished from Turkish Minute.
