Electoral cycle of Turkey
The Electoral cycle of Turkey is composed of three different types of elections, namely general elections every four years, local elections every five years and presidential elections every five years. Occasionally, referendums may be held if at least 330 Members of Parliament in the Grand National Assembly vote in favour of a constitutional amendment. Elections are overseen by the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey.
Elections
A summary of the purpose of each type of election is as follows.
- general elections in order to elect 550 Members of Parliament to the Grand National Assembly using the D'Hondt method, a party-list proportional representation system. Held every four years (last held 12 June 2011; next one scheduled for 7 June 2015)
- local elections in order to elect metropolitan and municipal mayors, as well as provincial and municipal mayors councillors. Held every five years (last held: 30 March 2014)
- presidential elections, in order to elect the President of Turkey using a two-round system. Held every five years (last held: 10 August 2014)
- Referenda, held if 330 members of parliament vote in favour of a constitutional change that is then put to the electorate (last held: 12 September 2010)
Historical changes
The 2007 constitutional referendum brought about significant changes to the Turkish electoral system, lowering the parliamentary terms from five years to four. As a result, general elections are now held every four years rather than five. Furthermore, the constitutional changes adopted in the referendum made the President elected by direct ballot rather than indirectly within parliament as had previously been the case. Before 2014, presidential elections were held every seven years by MPs, but are now held directly every five years. The incumbent may seek re-election once for a maximum of two terms, whereas the term limit for previous presidents elected indirectly were capped at one term.
Electoral cycle since 1999
| Turkish electoral cycle, 1999 onwards | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Election | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| General | 18 April 1999 DSP-MHP-ANAP coalition |
3 November 2002 AK Party majority |
22 July 2007 AK Party majority |
12 June 2011 AK Party majority |
7 June 2015 |
Next |
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| Local | 18 April 1999 DSP victory |
28 March 2004 AK Party victory |
29 March 2009 AK Party victory |
30 March 2014 AK Party victory |
Next |
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| Presidential | 5 May 2000 (indirect) Ahmet Necdet Sezer (cross-party) |
28 August 2007 (indirect) Abdullah Gül (AK Party) |
10 August 2014 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (AK Party) |
Next |
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| Referenda | 21 October 2007 YES |
12 September 2010 YES |
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