ERDEM-NEWSLETTER-2018-metin

376 NEWSLETTER 2018 The Start of a New Era in Turkey: Presidential System of Government - I* Att. Cansu Ozsan What did the Constitutional amendment and Presidential system bring and what did it take? Today, these questions are on everyone’s mind in Turkey. This article aims to answer these questions, and ex- amines Law on the Amendment to the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey numbered 6771 (“Constitutional Amendment”) that leads to the system change, and the new system of government. In our next ar- ticle, ‘Key Legislative Compliance Updates,’ the organizational struc- ture, and the affiliates of the Presidential institution shall be examined. Constitutional Amendment Turkish citizens went to the polls to vote on the constitutional amendment on 16.04.2017 and the Constitutional amendment was ap- proved with 51% of votes. Since the main aim of the amendment of 18 Articles of the Constitution was the transition to a Presidential system, Turkey’s transition to a Presidential system has begun. Eligibility to be a Deputy Firstly, the number of deputies in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (“Parliament”) was increased from 550 to 600. The amend- ment aims to reduce the number of voters per deputy. At this point, it should be noted that according to Turkey’s current electoral system, the deputy candidates are determined by the political parties, not by the voters. The age of candidacy was reduced to 18 from 25. Prior to the Constitutional amendment in 2006, this age had been 30. The require- ment of mandatory military service to become a deputy candidate has * Article of July 2018