A proposal to relieve the early pensioners has been accepted in Turkish Grand National Assembly, the bill is significant for being the first one in years to pass against governing AKP. Even though at the final voting stage MHP voted against it, proving that the governing party needs an ally to block proposals from the opposition for parliamentary inquiries or draft bills.
Turkish Parliament for years has been voting on proposals and draft bills from opposition parties but they have been facing the same fate as always, "defeated with votes of governing AKP". Since declaration of the Presidential Alliance, the defeating of opposition proposals had been due to "with votes of governing AKP and MHP".
Yesterday after MHP leader had called the end of Presidential Alliance, MHP votes have migrated to the opposition side and governing AKP thus has fallen below 50% in the parliament.
The law proposal on the pensioners who have retired in early ages -which had been the retirement age by the time they had signed their work contract- has been brought to parliament floor by IYI Party which had promised to pass this law in the elections. The proposal has been brought to parliament floor and supported by main opposition CHP, HDP, IYI Party and recently opposition MHP. The bill has been carried to parliament floor with 145 votes against AKP's 135, while there are a total of 596 members of parliament registered in the system.
Later during the approval voting of the bill, MHP changed sides again and voted with the governing AKP to block the proposal, defeating it at parliament floor.
ERDOĞAN'S STATEMENT
AKP chair & President Erdoğan had previously said in his parliamentary group speech that early retirement would harm the budget as one would work for only 20 years, retire at the age of 38 and then take a pension for 40 years.
FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2014
The last time an opposition proposal had been accepted in the parliament floor was in 2014 when CHP group had proposed a bill on mining and at the time of voting opposition was in the majority in the parliament quorum. On March 27, 2015 when main opposition CHP had proposed continuation of talks on internal security, AKP deputies had accidentally approved of the proposal which had later caused heated moments in the parliament.