Public support for an executive-style presidency in Turkey is lukewarm at best, according to an article in Time magazine.
President Erdogan is in the middle of a tub-thumping campaign to persuade voters in the upcoming referendum, to agree to abolish the parliamentary system and replace it with an executive presidency.
However, with only two months to go before the 16th April referendum on the proposed constitutional changes, polls show that “no” voters beat the “yes” voters by 47.5% to 43.9%.
There are 10% of voters who remain undecided.
If the referendum does not yield the results Erdogan seeks, it would be an embarrassing defeat and would herald an uncertain future for the country, Time magazine says. If President Erdogan’s campaign is successful, then he will have a massive amount of responsibility placed on his shoulders.
The new-style presidential system would remove the post of prime minister, give the president the authority to appoint and dismiss ministers, permit the president to formally represent his political party and curb parliament’s power to challenge the president.
Time