The Turkish government maintains the elections for May 14 despite the impact of the earthquakes

18 Feb. () –

The Turkish government has no intention, for now, of postponing the elections scheduled for May 14 despite the catastrophic impact of the earthquakes in the south of the country, which have so far left some 40,600 dead and devastating property damage.

The confirmation has come from sources from the Justice and Development party of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a great promoter of these elections, to the Habertürk television channel.

These intentions, according to these sources, were ratified this week in a meeting between the Turkish president and the leader of one of his coalition partners, the Nationalist Movement Party, Devlet Bahceli.

Erdogan gave a glimpse in December of his intention to ask for popular support with a view to a last five-year presidential term in the 2023 elections before retiring from political life.

The president was prime minister between 2003 and 2014 and, since then, he has been the president of the nation. A constitutional amendment in 2017 changed the system to an executive presidency model, and Erdogan was elected president in 2018.

The opposition has disputed the legality of this new candidacy but the government argues that the change in the system now allows Erdogan to present himself as if previous mandates had not counted for these new elections.