Sancar: AKP, MHP aim to keep parliamentary majority despite losing public support

Click to read the article in Turkish

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Mithat Sancar has spoken on current affairs at his party's parliamentary group meeting.

Sancar started his speech by commemorating those who lost their lives in the 1988 Halabja Massacre in Iraq and the 1978 Beyazıt Massacre in İstanbul, both of which happened on March 16.

Commenting on a new bill submitted by the ruling alliance to amend the election law, Sancar said they aim to keep the parliamentary majority despite losing public support.

"The aim of this amendment is to make the government win the majority through political engineering and legal games," he said.

"Look, they supposedly lowered the threshold to 7 percent ... We have been fighting against the threshold since our establishment," Sancar remarked. "We destroyed that threshold with our resolute struggle. Of course, our struggle has a role in lowering the threshold to 7 percent, but their calculations also play a role."

Yesterday, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and their allies Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) submitted the bill in question, which lowers the threshold from 10 to 7 percent but makes it harder for smaller parties to gain seats in the parliament.

CLICK - Law draft submitted to Parliament: Ruling alliance to lower electoral threshold 

CLICK - 'Erdoğan now only has his core voter base left' 

CLICK - Why has the AKP-MHP bloc decided to lower the election threshold?

(AÖ/VK)