By MURAT YETKİN
April 19 2018
A day after his alliance partner, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, asked for an early election to be held on Aug. 26, President Tayyip Erdoğan on April 18 announced that Turkey would hold parliamentary and presidential elections on June 24. It seems that the date was discussed by the two leaders during their rather short, approximately 30-minute meeting yesterday lunch time, a few hours before Erdoğan’s announcement.A day after his alliance partner, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, asked for an early election to be held on Aug. 26, President Tayyip Erdoğan on April 18 announced that Turkey would hold parliamentary and presidential elections on June 24. It seems that the date was discussed by the two leaders during their rather short, approximately 30-minute meeting yesterday lunch time, a few hours before Erdoğan’s announcement.
Both Bahçeli’s call for early elections and Erdoğan’s acceptance came as a surprise, as the president has repeatedly denied all suggestions of an early election, saying it would be held “on time” in November 2019. Actually, considering the date announced it would not be too wrong to call it a “raid-like” election rather than an “early” one, as there are now only 65 days left until voters to go to the ballot box.
