Turkey Announces Snap Presidential Elections

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announces early presidential and parliamentary elections for June 24, 2018, at the Presidential Palace, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, April 18, 2018.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announces early presidential and parliamentary elections for June 24, 2018, at the Presidential Palace, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, April 18, 2018. Pool Photo via AP
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announces early presidential and parliamentary elections for June 24, 2018, at the Presidential Palace, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, April 18, 2018.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announces early presidential and parliamentary elections for June 24, 2018, at the Presidential Palace, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, April 18, 2018. Pool Photo via AP

Turkey Announces Snap Presidential Elections

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced Wednesday that the country will hold snap parliamentary and presidential elections on June 24, a year and a half before previously planned. The election also marks the enactment of the increased executive power given to the president after a referendum in 2017, so the president will become vastly more powerful much earlier than expected. The new system will allow the president to declare a state of emergency, prepare the budget, appoint judges and other high-level officials, and in some circumstances dissolve parliament. President Erdoğan is widely expected to win the elections.

Worldview host Jerome McDonnell discusses the implications of the snap elections with Sinan Erensu, a postdoctoral fellow at the Northwestern University Buffett Institute for Global Studies, where his work focuses on political power and dissent in 21st century Turkey.