Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Wednesday for snap elections for June 24 in a move aimed at accelerating the transition to a new presidential system.
The announcement upended the political timetable in Turkey, which had been set to vote in simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections on November 3, 2019.
Erdogan made the announcement in an address at his presidential palace after meeting Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) chief Devlet Bahceli who the day earlier had urged early elections.
"As a result of consultations with Mr. Bahceli, we decided to hold elections on June 24, 2018, a Sunday," said Erdogan.
Bahceli stunned Turkish political observers on Tuesday when he urged the government not to wait for November 2019 to hold the presidential and parliamentary elections, suggesting the polls be held on August 26, 2018.
The elections are especially significant as afterwards a new executive presidency -- agreed in a 2017 referendum and denounced by critics as giving the president authoritarian powers -- will come into force.
The new timetable means that Turkey will also vote in the polls under the state of emergency imposed since the July 15, 2016 failed coup aimed at ousting Erdogan. The authorities agreed this week the emergency should stay in place for another three months.
The main opposition CHP party called for an immediate end to the emergency, which allows Erdogan and the government to bypass parliament in passing new laws and allows them to suspend rights and freedoms.
“There cannot be an election under emergency rule,” CHP spokesman Bulent Tezcan said. “The country needs to brought out of the emergency rule regime starting today.”
The United Nations last month called for an end to the emergency and accused Ankara of mass arrests, arbitrary sacking and other abuses. Some 160,000 people have been detained and a similar number of civil servants dismissed since the failed putsch, it said.
Media outlets have been shut down and scores of journalists have also been jailed.
Parliament last month passed a law revamping electoral regulations that the opposition has said could open the door to fraud and jeopardize the fairness of voting. The law grants the High Electoral Board the authority to merge electoral districts and move ballot boxes to other districts.
The date set by Erdogan will precipitate an intense election campaign as opposition parties seek to challenge his grip.
The MHP chief's intervention surprised commentators since the government led by Erdogan has repeatedly insisted there will be no early elections.
Erdogan said the authorities would have preferred to "grit our teeth" and wait until November 2019 but the situation in neighboring Iraq and Syria "made it essential for Turkey to overcome the uncertainties ahead as soon as possible."
Erdogan said he wanted to hasten the move to a new presidential system agreed in the April 16, 2017 referendum which will see the office of prime minister eradicated and a new vertical power structure established under the presidency.
"After April 16, Turkey is still ruled by a system that we can consider old," he said. "The malaise of the old system can be seen in every step we take.
The Turkish lira, which has lost seven percent against the dollar over the past year, responded positively to the news, climbing 1.1 percent with investors gladdened over the end of uncertainty over the poll date.
But Fadi Hakura, Turkey expert at London-based think tank Chatham House, told AFP that the authorities were keen to hold the elections before any further deterioration in the economy.
While growth in Turkey was 7.4 percent in 2017, double-digit inflation, a wide current account deficit and the need for debt restructuring at top companies could be harbingers of trouble ahead.
The polls will give Erdogan, 64, a chance to extend his stay in power with a new-five-year mandate, after already serving 15 years in power as premier and then president.
In his 15 years of rule, Erdogan has transformed a poor country at the eastern edge of Europe into a major emerging market.
Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) has established a formal alliance with the MHP to fight the elections, in the hope of sweeping up conservative votes.
MHP leader since 1997, Bahceli is seen as a kingmaker in Turkish politics. He prompted the 2002 snap polls that brought the AKP to power and the AKP has ruled Turkey ever since.
