Good (Iyi) Party, launched in October by Meral Aksener, is eligible for June 24 parliamentary and presidential polls.

Aksener announced the formation of the party in October 2017 [File: Mustafa Kirazli/Getty Images]
Aksener announced the formation of the party in October 2017 [File: Mustafa Kirazli/Getty Images]

Turkey’s Supreme Election Board has confirmed that the recently formed Good (Iyi) Party is eligible to participate in the country’s upcoming snap elections.

Prior to Saturday’s announcement, debates over whether or not the party would be able to take part in the June 24 vote had flooded Turkish media, amid questions over whether it might fall foul of complicated rules suggesting it must have held its first congress at least six months before an election.

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Iyi Party was launched in October 2017 by Meral Aksener, a former minister. A January poll tipped it to win 15 percent of the votes in a parliamentary election.

Overall, the board said 10 parties were eligible to participate in the early presidential and parliamentary polls, called for by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday.

‘Turkey will be good’

Aksener promised to shake up Turkey’s politics with the launch of her party, whose party has adopted a centre-right platform.

Using “Turkey will be good” as its slogan and a bright sun as its logo, Iyi Party lists pluralism, democracy, the rule of law, freedom of speech and nationalist values as some of its founding principles.

Aksener rallied against constitutional changes narrowly passed in a referendum last April, which changed Turkey’s parliamentary system to an executive presidency.

Under the changes, the person who will be elected as president in 2019 will have new powers to appoint vice presidents, ministers, high-level officials and senior judges.

The president will also be able to dissolve parliament, issue executive decrees and impose states of emergency.

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