ANKARA: The leader of Turkey's main nationalist party, who has become a key ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Tuesday urged the holding of snap elections this August in comments that stunned Turkish politics.
Devlet Bahceli, who heads the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said that Turkey could not wait for November 3, 2019, when presidential and parliamentary elections are due to be held simultaneously.
He told a meeting of his party in Ankara that instead the elections should be held on August 26, 2018.
"In this situation it is not possible to wait until November 3, 2019," said Bahceli. "On August 26, 2018 the Turkish nation should go to the ballot box in the spirit of marking a new victory," he added.
The elections will be a key moment in Turkish history as it is after those polls that the new executive presidency giving the head of state more powers agreed in an April 2017 referendum should come into force.
Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag, quoted by Turkish media, said that the government would "consider" Bahceli's call. Erdogan is due to speak later in the morning to his ruling party.
Erdogan has formed a tight alliance with the MHP in recent months with the aim of fighting the elections together and the two parties have rarely had any recent disagreements in public.
Erdogan has so far insisted that elections would be held in November 2019, as scheduled. However analysts have always said early elections were a strong possibility, given the risk the economy might decline before November 2019.
The intervention by Bahceli stunned observers and the media. "The comments that changed Turkey's agenda," said the Milliyet daily on its website.
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