TURKEY: A Historic Manifesto from opposition for Democratization
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TURKEY: A historic manifesto from opposition for democratization
- 6 out of 7 major opposition parties came together to sign a manifesto for re-democratizing Turkey, if they were to come to power.
- Prelude: How Turkey gained and lost her democratic mojo?
- What does the manifesto entail?
- Can it be achieved?
- Does the opposition have any chance of beating President Erdogan and his AKP-MHP alliance.
- Will the manifesto gain the opposition any votes?
- A long-dormant act to regulate political ethics will be revised and legislated.
- The 10% national hurdle for a party to qualify for Grand Assembly will be reduced to 3%.
- The byelaws of GA will be amended to grant the opposition more time in debates.
- The authority to declare State of Emergency (SoE) will revert to the Cabinet and will require parliamentary approval.
- Extraordinary decrees which violate regular judicial norms, a travesty of the SoE regime, will be declared null and void.
- Turkey’s top judicial administrative body, the High Commission of Judges and Prosecutors will be divided into two chambers, for prosecutors and judges. Prosecutors will not be appointed judges.
- The secondary education curricula will be enhanced with human rights and gender equality classes.
- All exceptions, decrees and laws limiting the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression will be abolished.
- The much-abused institution of an Interior Ministry appointed administrator to replace mayors for alleged crimes will be ended.
- All relevant internationally acknowledged criteria for monitoring money laundering, corruption, nepotism and cronyism will be adopted in Turkey’s laws.
- The Public Procurement Law will be revised to bring it up to par with EU norms.
- Authority will be devolved from central government to municipalities, revenue sharing rules will be revised to dedicate more financial resources to the latter.
- The High Education Board, which is the top coordination body of Turkish universities will be abolished. All colleges will elect their own administrators (deans, presidents, etc.).
- Turkey’s independent regulatory agencies will be truly made so. (Currently, major regulatory agencies like BRSA, for instance, report to a minister).
