YEREVAN, JANUARY 21, ARMENPRESS. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey has adopted the draft constitutional changes proposed by the ruling party. 339 MPs have voted in favor of the bill.

The changes are about transforming the parliamentary system of governance into presidential one. The changes proposed by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) are comprised of 18 points, “Armenpress” reports, citing Turkish demokrathaber.org.

Following the approval of the draft, the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan must sign the document, after which it will be put to a referendum.

According to the standard procedure, the President has 15 days to sign the document, while the referendum has to be scheduled on the first Saturday after 60 days of the signing.

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus has informed that the referendum will be held during the period of April 2-9 of the current year.

The ruling Justice and Development party of Turkey has 317 seats in the parliament, but has 316 votes since the speaker of the parliament İsmail Kahraman representing the ruling party is deprived of the right to vote. 330 votes were necessary for adopting the draft constitution at the parliament. Prior to the parliament voting, the Justice and Development party negotiated with the leadership of the Nationalist Movement Party. The draft was approved thank to Nationalist Movement Party joining the ruling party.

It would be able to avoid the referendum if 367 MP had voted in favor of the draft. 

142 MPs voted against the bill and 9 abstained.