Turkish parties submit bill to allow electoral alliance

Looking ahead to an alliance in the 2019 poll, Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party and opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on Wednesday submitted a bill to the parliament speaker's office to allow electoral alliances.

The bill bears the signature of Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli.

On Jan. 8, Bahçeli announced that his party would support President and AK Party leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2019 presidential elections rather than fielding a candidate of its own.

Ahead of a constitutional referendum last April, both the AK Party and MHP campaigned for the sweeping package of changes.

In the referendum, Turkish voters approved a package of constitutional changes handing wide-ranging executive powers to the president and also allowing the president to retain ties to a political party.

The MHP has also worked with the AK Party on foreign policy issues, particularly since the July 2016 defeated coup orchestrated by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), which martyred 250 people and injured some 2,200 others.

Next year's presidential elections will be Turkey's first under the new presidential system of government.