BY OKTAY EKSI
HURRIYET- We've talked about many things, but not the possibility of Turkey electing a new president within the next five months. But Ahmet Sever, the president's chief press advisor, said that if voters indicate in next month's constitutional referendum that the president should be elected not by Parliament but the public, Gul would be on the ballot. Interestingly, the opposition is being very silent about this. I don't know why, but they aren't even discussing nominating a candidate. We have to discuss the current situation until they come to their senses. Some of my colleagues also mentioned that as everybody knows, Gul was elected Turkey's 11th president by Parliament on Aug. 28. However, Law 5678's temporary Article 19, which will come into force if it's accepted by the referendum, says that the first round of voting for the 11th presidential elections will be held on the first Sunday after the 40th day following publication of the law in the Official Gazette, and the second round will be held on the second Sunday following the first round. In other words, if popular election is approved in the referendum and Law 5678 goes into effect, our public will go to the ballot box on Dec. 9 to elect a new president.
If no candidate gets a simple majority of votes in the first round, the next round will probably be held on Dec. 23. Thus, the 11th president would have been elected in accordance with the law. So, could two people actually be our 11th president? If the text facing next month's referendum isn't changed, we'll face a legal conundrum, raising this pressing question: Who is Turkey's 11th president, the person who was elected on Aug. 28, or the one elected in December 2007?
Let's consider what would happen if Gul is elected president `11-A' on Dec. 9 or 23 for a five-year term. Then there will be two periods in which he fulfills his tasks with his authority under both the 1982 Constitution and the new draft constitution now being pushed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Today, he has a plenty of powers. So he can use these powers fearlessly as a president who was elected by popular vote, because he would be drawing his mandate from the support of at least 51 percent of the voters. But if the new draft constitution is passed, he would be a merely symbolic figure at the Presidential Palace.
Actually, even if the draft constitution says that there are examples of parliamentary systems with popularly elected presidents, Turkey having one would be a very awkward. Because in that case, there would be problems between the prime minister who came to power with the nation's support and the president who was elected with more support of the nation, as each would see himself as stronger than the other.