Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been elected for the position of the chairman of Turkish ruling Justice and Development (AK) party at an extraordinary party congress on Sunday.
According to the results of the voting, 1,414 delegates participating in the congress voted for Erdoğan, while no other candidates ran for the party's chairmanship.
The congress was organised after Erdogan had decided to return to the party, following the results of the Turkish referendum on April 16, which has significantly expanded powers of the Turkish president and allowed him to remain in the ranks of his party while holding the office.
Erdoğan and the AKP won a fraudulent, narrow "victory" on April 16 referendum that will transform Turkey's parliamentary governing system to an executive presidency.
Under the old constitution, the head of state had to sever ties with their political party and Erdoğan in August 2014 left the AKP and stepped down as chairman after his election as president.
Most of the constitutional changes will not take effect until after the next presidential and parliamentary elections, slated for Nov. 3, 2019. Three amendments, however, have automatically come into effect, including one that allows Erdogan to return to his party. Others are the repeal of military courts and a restructuring of Turkey's board of judges and prosecutors.
Erdoğan, who founded the Islamist-rooted AKP in 2001, pledged to fight Turkey's enemies at home and abroad on Sunday ahead of his election.
"We will continue our battle against all terrorist organisations," he said in the Ankara sports arena, vowing to maintain a state of emergency in Turkey until peace is achieved in Turkey's fight against Kurdish and Islamist militants.
The special congress slogan read "a new breakthrough period: democracy, transformation, reform", hinting at a restructuring of the government as well as changes to the party's executive in the coming weeks and months.
"By the end of this year, all our institutions will have a serious renewal," Erdoğan said in his speech.
Erdoğan has renewed nearly half of the AKP's executive management to include members of the youth organisations and representatives from business circles during the congress.
