Understanding Erdogan’s Third Presidential Candidacy in Turkey’s 2023 Elections

According to the Turkish constitution:

• He is considered the head of state, the de facto ruler of the country.
• The president is elected through direct elections that take place simultaneously with the parliamentary elections.
• The candidate for the presidency must be a holder of a higher education degree and not be less than 40 years old.
• The term of office of the President is 5 years.
• The same person may not be elected president more than twice in a row.
• If Parliament decides to hold elections before the end of the second presidential term, the sitting president can again become a candidate.

Erdogan is a candidate for the third time

In the 2023 elections, Erdogan announced his candidacy for the presidency for the third time, and this is clearly contrary to the constitution, so why did the Turkish Ministry of Justice allow this matter?

The Ministry of Justice considered Erdogan’s candidacy legal, because after the adoption of the amendments to the constitution regarding the introduction of the presidential system of government in 2017, Erdogan ran in the elections only once, and did not approve his previous candidacy for the presidency because it preceded the amendments.

For this reason, his participation in the current presidential elections, in 2023, is considered the second participation, not the third.

It is worth noting that Erdogan, the leader of the Justice and Development Party, won 49.51% of the votes in the first round of the elections that took place on May 14, while his main rival, the leader of the Republican People’s Party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, got 44.88%, while the candidate of the Grandfathers Alliance got 44.88%. Sinan Ogan with 5.7%, and later announced his support for Erdogan.