Why has Turkey decided to hold early elections?

Presidential and parliamentary elections will take place in Turkey on June 24, more than a year earlier than the scheduled date, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Wednesday. 

Erdogan’s announcement came a day after Devlet Bahceli, chairman of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), called for early elections to be held on August 26, 2018. 

The parliamentary and presidential polls had previously been slated for November 3, 2019.

"Even though the president and government are working in unison, the diseases of the old system confront us at every step we take," Erdogan said.

"We were in favour of waiting until November 2019 for the elections. But our military operation in Syria and the historically significant regional developments in Syria and Iraq made it compulsory for Turkey to overcome the uncertainties. It’s urgent for Turkey to shift to the new system in order to make decisions and take concrete steps regarding our future."

"We discussed Mr Bahceli's call with our relevant authorities. We came to the agreement that we should approach this early election positively," he added.

Erdogan said the country urgently needed to make the switch to an executive presidency, which was adopted on April 16 last year with a referendum supported by the MHP.

However, the articles of constitutional change were to come into effect on November 2019 with an election, it will now come into effect after snap elections on June 24. 

Bahceli's support after the coup attempt in Turkey

Bahceli supported the referendum last year, saying it would result in a "strong political power to ensure that the Turkish Republic survives into the future." 

After a failed coup attempt by the Fetullah Terrorist Organisation (FETO) took place in July 2016, killing at least 250 people, the MHP provided the most support for the AK Party in its fight against FETO. 

Three weeks after the attempted putsch, Bahceli attended a rally in support of the elected government in Istanbul with other key political leaders at the request of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Following that meeting, it was revealed that only the MHP agreed to a quick constitutional change, which the AK Party was suggesting.

A meeting in Ankara between Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Bahceli on October 17 followed the rally.

On November 15, the AK Party presented the draft amendments for the constitutional change to the MHP. Later, the Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and the MHP's Mehmet Parsak began to work on the proposal, and on November 29, it became clear that the two sides had a common understanding. 

After holding another meeting in Ankara on December 1, Yildirim and Bahceli declared they had reached an agreement. 

The proposed constitution would grant more executive powers. The change would also allow the president to retain ties to a political party.

On December 10, the AK Party presented their draft proposal to the 550-seat parliament with 316 deputies' signatures.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the People's Democratic Party (HDP) have opposed the constitutional change since the beginning of the process. 

And on April 16, with a referendum, the new constitution was approved by Turkish voters. 

Electoral alliance came next

The MHP and AK Party went for an alliance for the next elections, and changed the country's electoral system on March 15, passing a bill that would allow political parties to form alliances in elections. 

There have not been any changes to the election threshold under the new system, as political parties need to secure at least 10 percent in elections to win seats in parliament. 

Now, only the total votes of the alliance need to pass the threshold for the parties to claim seats in parliament, meaning parties close to the threshold can secure seats when they form alliances.

With this article, political parties will have a better chance of getting into parliament once they create alliances with other parties with less votes.

On January 8, MHP leader Bahceli announced his party would support the President and AK Party leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the 2019 presidential election, instead of presenting a candidate of its own.

The AK Party holds 316 seats in parliament, the CHP holds 131, the MHP holds 36 and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) holds 50. Members of the HDP, including then two co-chairs, were detained over accusations of having links to the PKK. 

The PKK has been designated a terror group by Turkey, the US and the EU. The group has been fighting the Turkish state for more than 30 years, causing the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including civilians.

The newly established IYI (Good) Party has five MPs in parliament who defected from the MHP and the CHP.

The CHP and HDP haven't announced their candidates for the presidency.

Only Meral Aksener, head of IYI Party, announced that she is going to run for the presidential elections.

MHP leader Bahceli previously said that his party will support the current president Erdogan as a candidate.