Turkey's ruling AK Party: 'Snap election not on agenda'

By Metin Bolat

KONYA

The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party has no plans to hold snap election in Turkey following the referendum on constitutional reforms on Sunday, the party's deputy chairman said on Thursday.

"We have not made any kind of preparations for snap election... There is no such thing on our agenda," Ahmet Sorgun told journalists in central Konya province.

In response to a question about whether the ruling party intends to hold snap election if Turkish people vote in favor of changing the constitution on Sunday, he said: "Holding elections on time is one of the basic principles of the AK Party."

Sunday’s referendum proposes a host of constitutional reforms that would hand wide-ranging executive powers to Turkey’s president.

The post of prime minister would be abolished and the president would also be allowed to retain ties to a political party.

Other changes include the minimum age of parliamentary candidates getting reduced to 18 and the number of deputies increased to 600.

Reporting by Metin Bolat; Writing by Ilker Girit