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Mehmet Uçum, consultant to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wrote an article discussing if it was legal for Erdoğan to run for president.
Uçum said that the limitation to be able to run only for two terms became valid from the date the amendments to the constitution entered into force in 2018.
Uçum argued that the "two terms" limitation could not be interpreted in a way to take into account the presidential term before this date.
In his article published in Habertürk, Uçum wrote that the two terms rule, regulated in article 101 of the Constitution was adopted with the 2017 referendum.
"Article 101 was rewritten completely in a way to also include these provisions, it has entered into force in its amended form as a whole on April 30, 2018," said Uçum.
"Even if expressions are same, they are not the same"
"Therefore although the condition in article 101 that a person can be elected for only two terms is the same as the expression in the old provisions as a text, legally we have a new regulation.
It is not valid to claim that the amended provisions of article 101 are new, but the provisions repeating the old text are old.
Article 101 has entered into force as a new regulation in line with the new system. This means that for the new system, the condition that a person can be elected for two terms is valid from the date article 101 entered into force." wrote Uçum.
"Law does not apply retroactively"
"The election for president held in 2014 has been held according to the old version of article 101 which has now been amended as a whole. But the new version of article 101 became valid for the presidential elections to be held from that date on.
Uçum, therefore, argues in his article that constitutionally, the condition that a person can be elected president for two terms applies for the period after April 30, 2018.
Since a new regulation is made and since the laws do not apply retroactively, this proves that the presidency term served in the old system cannot be taken into account as a term in the new system, Uçum argues. (RT/PE)
