Bahçeli’s early election pronouncement is no surprise

The election timetables were known. The local elections were in March 2019, and the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019 However, the number one question on the agenda for at least the past year has been over the possibility an early election. The ruling party’s spokespeople, not least Erdoğan, have said in unison, “There is definitely no early election.”

Nevertheless, the question about early elections continued to be posed. There has been talk in the political lobbies in recent days of using the ruling party’s unofficial partner Devlet Bahçeli to announce the early election. Bahçeli was the person when he himself was a partner in the 1999 government who announced the early election decision for 3 November 2002 which served as the date today’s AKP came to power. The same has happened today. In other words, no surprise is involved. The early election card was being kept secret. Bahçeli was employed to bring it into the open.

The only question that needs to be answered here is whether Bahçeli announced this having spoken to Erdoğan or independently. However, this no longer has much importance. All developments in the country were pointing to an early election. The AKP-MHP partnership’s difficulty in getting fifty per cent plus one and the prospect of this gradually becoming more difficult is the most important reason for the election.

It may not always be to everyone’s liking. But history can sometimes repeat itself. For Bahçeli. Bahçeli, who brought the opposition AKP into power by ensuring that an early election was held while one of the partners in power, may this time similarly end AKP-MHP rule on the date of 26 August that he has set. The road to office may open for the opposition.

HABERİN TÜRKÇESİ İÇİN: "Bahçeli’nin erken seçim çıkışı sürpriz değil"