Erdogan Rivals to Restore Parliament Rule If Victorious at Polls

(Bloomberg) -- Turkey's top opposition parties agreed to strip executive power from the presidency and reinstall parliamentary governance if they win elections in 2023.

It's the latest indication that Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rivals are forming a broad camp to challenge him.

Erdogan has turned the presidential office into the nexus of political power since 2018. But his political opponents have slammed what they see as a slide toward authoritarian one-man rule.

On Monday the leaders of six parties, including the main opposition Republican People's Party as well as IYI Party, agreed in a declaration to abandon the presidential system if victorious. 

The unified stance suggests Erdogan and his ruling AK Party, who have lost some support in recent months amid soaring prices, will be confronted with the widest opposition coalition they've ever faced at general elections set for June next year.

The parties vowed to reinstate powers in the legislature that were established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, in 1920 as part of a secular and western-oriented revolution that replaced the theocratic Ottoman Empire. 

Below are highlights from the declaration:

• A prime minister will be named from among lawmakers
• The president will be limited to one term of 7 years, instead of the current two 5-year terms, and will have to sever ties with party politics
• The president's power to regulate fundamental rights and freedoms, as well declaring emergency laws, will end
• Presidential power to veto bills approved by parliament will be restricted

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