​Immunities vote adds to political uncertainty

TURKEY - In Brief 17 May 2016 by Atilla Yesilada

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Debating and voting all night, the Turkish Grand Assembly failed to secure the 367 votes necessary to ratify the two amendments to lift the immunities of those deputies who are under indictment or already convicted of various crimes. The motion to advance to voting of the two articles of the provisional amendment to lift the immunities attracted only 348 votes. The first article which would abolish the immunity received 350; the second which would ban appeals to the Constitutional Court attracted 357 votes. The second round of balloting will be held on Friday. As I write the lines, there was no comment from the AKP ranks as to whether it would push ahead for the second round of balloting or withdraw the amendments back to commission, which might suggest a referendum might be underway. Early press reports indicate that most of CHP and a small number of AKP deputies refused to toe the party line, rejecting the amendments. The majority opinion in the press with which I concur is that the second round of balloting would not change the outcome in the direction of outright ratification. Yesterday’s ballot results leave the AKP administration with some unpleasant choices. First they could try their luck in the second round, hoping that the outcome would change in the direction of ratification. Secondly, they could cancel the voting and pursue a course of punishing each HDP deputy accused or convicted of aiding and abetting terror by floor votes, which is very time consuming. Third, they can accept the outcome of the final voting and submit the results to Erdogan who is expected to present it to a referendum. Unless the High Election Council approves mixing questions in refere...