Erdoğan sheds light on Turkey’s new presidential system

With Turkey’s elections fast approaching, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shed light on the new presidential system of government late Thursday.

Speaking during a special joint live broadcast on Turkish channel ATV and channel A Haber, Erdogan mentioned what the new presidential system of government will bring.

“We will reduce the number of ministries to 16 in the presidential system of government,” he said.

As another innovation under the new government system, Erdoğan said four significant offices would be established.

“In the first stage, four offices for Human Resources, Investment, Finance and Digital Transformation bear great importance under new model because they are almost the closest staff to the president,” he said.

The president also shed light on the new directorates to be established under the new model.

“And also, of course, there are directorates to be affiliated to the presidency, and eight directorates are at stake here,” Erdogan said, naming them as the Directorate of General Staff, Directorate of National Intelligence, Directorate of Defense Industry, National Security Council, Directorate of Religious Affairs, State Supervisory Council, Directorate of Communication and Directorate of Strategy and Budget.

Erdogan also mentioned the changes in the economy under the new system.

“Economy administration will be simplified. We will reduce the number of ministries, which is six now, to three,” he said.

Voters will head to the polls on June 24 -- less than a week away.

Over 3 million Turks living abroad are eligible to vote for the presidential and general elections.

Six candidates are running for president while eight political parties are taking part in the parliamentary elections.

Erdogan has served as president since 2014 -- Turkey's first popularly elected president. Before that, he served as prime minister from 2003 to 2014.

If reelected Sunday, he will be Turkey’s first president under the new presidential system of government, which was chosen by Turkish voters in an April 2017 referendum.