Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan said on Wednesday elections will be held on June 24, 2018, more than a year earlier than planned.
He said the elections that were originally scheduled to be held in November 2019 need to be brought forward in order to quickly usher in a new presidential system to deal with challenges ahead.
Erdoğan made the announcement in an address at his presidential palace after meeting fascist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli who the day earlier had "suggested" early elections. MHP party, expected to form an alliance with Erdoğan's AKP party in the polls.
"Be it the cross-border operations in Syria, or incidents of historic importance centred in Syria and Iraq, they have made it imperative for Turkey to overcome uncertainties quickly," Erdogan said.
"Switching to a new system of government has increasingly gained urgency so that decisions regarding our country's future can be made and implemented with greater strength," he added.
Both presidential and parliamentary elections will be held on the same day, on June 24.
On Tuesday, Devlet Bahçeli "suggests" an early election saying the country could not wait for the scheduled date of November 3, 2019. The government had repeatedly dismissed the prospect of an early election.
The early election decision raised doubts on an election conspiracy since the Supreme Election Board (YSK) of Turkey, which acts according to the directives of the AKP government, announced earlier in 2018 that only 9 political parties were eligible to take part in the elections. Some of the parties like The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) were excluded from the list by YSK unlawfully.
Erdoğan last year narrowly won a fraudulent referendum to change the constitution and create an executive presidency. However, those extended powers are not due to take effect until after the presidential election.
