Next elections in Turkey to be held in 2019, says President Erdoğan
Giving statements at İstanbul’s Atatürk Airport before taking off for his eastern Africa visits, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said elections in Turkey would take place in 2019 as planned, if the constitutional amendments for the shift to presidential system gets the winning votes at the referendum in early spring this year.
Erdoğan said the following: “The parliamentary stage of the process has been completed successfully. This means, referendum is next. Now, the proposal will be taken to its actual owner, the people. We must see that first... If our people approve it, holding an election right away is out of the question. In 2019, it will be asked to people again... Having a president with party affiliation will be the most different part of this processs... This is a change of the system. And, nobody should take offense but this is not a system that started recently. This goes back to the founding of our Republic. They keep saying this is ‘a one man regime’; if they do not know the founding stage of the Republic, they could not know this process, either... In 2019, the new president with a party affiliation will be elected... As you know, the cabinet of that new president could be not necessarily a member of the parliament but people out of the parliament. That is primarily important... Of course, it will be to the benefit of our country to form a very different and strong cabinet before that time comes...”
Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/erdogan-dan-erken-secim-aciklamasi-144058.html