ANKARA - Turkey's parliament rejected on Monday a proposal to make it harder to ban political parties, in a surprise blow to the Islamist-rooted AK Party government and its plans to reform the constitution.Prime Miniser Tayyip Erdogan said, however, he would press on with the reform plan which opponents see as a bid to expand AK's grip on state institutions and undermine Turkey's secular principles. The AK Party, which has roots in political Islam but denies ambitions to create an Islamic state, says the reforms are needed to bring Turkey closer to EU democratic norms.
Erdogan says he will call a referendum if the AK Party fails to secure the necessary number of votes for the reform package as a whole. 'We will continue on our path. Withdrawing the constitutional draft is not on the agenda.'
The article won the support of 327 deputies in the 550-seat assembly, falling short of the 330 votes needed for it to be accepted in the final round of voting. The article as a result will be dropped from the reform package. The AK Party, in power since 2002, has 335 seats in parliament, meaning some AK Party MPs broke with party discipline and voted against the reform.
The EU has criticised Turkey's political parties law, under which almost 20 parties have been banned since the constitution was adopted in 1982 following a coup. The ruling AK Party itself narrowly survived a court attempt to close it down on the grounds that it contravened the country's secular constitution.
Investors are following the constitutional reforms closely, fearing it could increase tensions and lead to the next election, due in July 2011, being brought forward.
Parliament is also set this week to vote on two other contentious proposals: the reform of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors and the Constitutional Court, both of which are strongholds of the secularist establishment. The main opposition party has said it would appeal to the country's top court to annul the amendments.