Home > 1.1 Universal suffrage > TÜRKIYE - Joint Opinion on Amendments to the Electoral Legislation and Related "Harmonisation Laws" Adopted in March and April 2018
 
 
 
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Paragraph 22
 

The importance of stability in electoral legislation is also recognised by the Constitution of Turkey (Article 67.6): “Amendments to the electoral laws shall not apply to the elections to be held within one year from the entry into force date of the amendments.” However, the 2017 constitutional reform added a provisional Article 21 H to the Constitution which suspended Article 67.6 for the 2018 parliamentary and presidential elections.12 Similar suspensions of the constitutional ban on late amendments to electoral legislation had been adopted on previous occasions (Provision of the Act No. 4709 of October 3, 2001 Provisional Article A, Provision of the Act No. 4777 of December 27, 2002, Provisional Article 1). As it is, the Turkish constitutional ban on late amendments to electoral legislation appears to have little effect in practice.


 


12 The provisional Article 21 H to the Constitution of Turkey reads: “Last paragraph of Article 67 of the Constitution shall not apply regarding the first mutual parliamentary and Presidential elections which will be held following the date of entry into force of law”.”