Two- Round Elections Possible?

HURRIYET- Columnist Oktay Eksi writes on the heated debate concerning a two-round election system and current proposals about forming alliances in elections. A summary of his column is as follows:
What are the political parties for? Certainly, they are for bringing a specific political point of view to power and administrating the country in that direction to sustain the nation’s well-being. If no single party is able to do this on its own, then what is wrong with reaching a consensus and offering a joint political program to the people? This is the proposal Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit is hesitating agreeing to. However, time is passing and even if he has a change of heart on the matter, it might already be too late. Of course, we are talking about the forming of alliances between political parties in elections. As my colleague Muharrem Akkaya also writes today, this issue has been the subject of serious discussion, especially between the Motherland Party (ANAP) and the True Path Party (DYP). DYP chairwoman Tansu Ciller reportedly put forward her getting the prime ministry as a precondition for compromising with ANAP. Here, we won’t be discussing the ethical aspects of this, but let’s take a closer look at her other proposal concerning the two-round elections system. Recently resigned former Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk, who is also one of our nation’s foremost election law scholars, has actually written a well-informed article on the subject. Though France has such a system, Turk contends that the two-round setup works best in countries where individual candidates compete in relatively small electoral districts. Turkey, by contrast, has parties competing in a proportional election system. Furthermore, what Ciller proposes is a multi-candidate system. Moreover, the election mechanism in Turkey is unable to afford a one-week interval between the first and second rounds. And a prolonged time period between the two may create even more serious problems. Another important point is that two-round system is not a foolproof one in terms of excluding extremist parties. Letting such parties in is also possible. Yet, Turk warns us that there are also some serious ethical concerns about this system. All in all, the two-round election system proposal needs to be considered carefully.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION