Home > 1.2.3 Equality and national minorities > TÜRKIYE - Opinion on the Suspension of the Second Paragraph of Article 83 of the Constitution (Parliamentary Inviolability)
 
 
 
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Paragraph 71
 

This means that in the by-elections following the entry into force of Law 4777 of 27 December 2002 and Law No. 5659 of 10 May 2007, changes to electoral laws that were adopted less than a year before the elections could already be applied. This constituted indeed ad hoc exceptions to a provision of the Constitution. However, they cannot be compared in substance to the Amendment of 12 April 2016 because they did not encroach upon the legal position of individuals and it did not have the same ad homines character (see below under E). Apart from that difference in substance, the Amendments of 2002 and 2007 removed for single elections the constitutional guarantee of 2001 that changes to the electoral system should not be introduced shortly before elections. The Provisional Article 1 of Law 4777 and Provisional Article 17 introduced by Law No. 5659 of 10 May 2007 therefore can hardly serve as a positive example for the current Amendment.