Bill for early Turkish polls to be submitted tonight

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party late Wednesday will submit a bill to hold early elections this June, as announced by the president, the party’s group chairman said.

"We will submit the bill on holding snap elections on June 24 to the Parliament speaker’s office," Mustafa Elitas told Anadolu Agency.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli will sign onto the bill, he said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier Wednesday announced plans to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24, over a year before they had been scheduled, in November 2019.

The announcement came after Bahceli -- whose party is set to enter elections in an alliance with the AK Party -- called for early elections.

Announcing the decision, Erdogan said: “Turkey’s cross-border operation in Syria, and the situation in both Syria and Iraq, obliged Turkey to overcome uncertainties as soon as possible.”

He added: "At a time when developments in Syria accelerated, and we have to take very important decisions, from macroeconomic equilibrium to large investments, the election issue should be taken off the table as soon as possible."