Political Parties & Voting Rights

Updated 26 July 2026

Political parties are described by the Constitution as “indispensable elements of democratic political life” (Art. 68). The legal framework governing their formation, financing, and dissolution is set out in Articles 68–69 of the Constitution and in Law No. 2820 on Political Parties (1983, as amended).

The right to vote

Every Turkish citizen aged 18 or over has the right to vote (Constitution, Art. 67). The following groups are excluded from voting:

• privates and corporals serving in the Turkish Armed Forces;
• students attending military schools;
• persons serving prison sentences for intentional crimes (those held in pre-trial detention or serving sentences for unintentional crimes retain the right).

Standing for election

Following the 2017 amendments, the minimum candidate age was lowered from 25 to 18. Candidates must be Turkish citizens; certain categories (including active military personnel and judges) must resign before standing.

Membership in political parties

Citizens aged 18 or over may form, join, or withdraw from parties freely (Constitution, Art. 68). The following persons may not be party members:

• judges and public prosecutors;
• members of the higher judicial bodies, including the Constitutional Court, Court of Cassation, Council of State, Court of Accounts, and HSK;
• members of the public-service categories of civil servants who are not classified as workers;
• members of the Turkish Armed Forces;
• students in primary and secondary education (university students may join).

Financing and audit

Parties are financed through three sources:

• membership dues;
• donations from individuals and legal persons, within the limits set by Law No. 2820;
• annual Treasury aid, paid to parties that meet the statutory threshold under Law No. 2820, supplementary article 1.

Strict prohibitions:

• parties may not receive funds from public bodies, local administrations, public economic enterprises, or foreign states, organizations, or persons;
• commercial activity by parties is prohibited.

The Constitutional Court is the sole authority responsible for auditing party finances and adjudicating actions for dissolution. A party that has accepted assistance from foreign states or persons may be permanently dissolved (Constitution, Art. 69).

Dissolution

The Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation may bring an action before the Constitutional Court for the dissolution of a political party. Dissolution may be ordered where a party becomes a center of activities contrary to the principles of the democratic and secular Republic, the indivisible integrity of the state, or the equal protection of citizens. As an alternative sanction, the Court may instead deprive a party of all or part of its state aid for a stated period.

Parliamentary groups

A party needs 20 deputies to form a parliamentary group (Constitution, Art. 95; TBMM rules of procedure, Art. 18; Law No. 2820, Art. 22). Independents cannot combine to form one, however many of them there are. A group sets the legislative calendar with the other groups, takes speaking time in the chamber, and tables motions on behalf of its members, so the 20-deputy line is the practical dividing line between a party that shapes business in the Assembly and one that does not. Seven parties currently clear it.

Yeni Yol began as a joint parliamentary group formed by deputies of the DEVA Party, the Future Party (Gelecek Partisi) and the Felicity Party (Saadet Partisi), and later took the form of a party in its own right. Reports of a change in its chairmanship during 2026 could not be confirmed against a primary source at the date of this page, so no name is given here rather than an unverified one.

Seat distribution in the Grand National Assembly

The elections of 14 May 2023 returned the 28th-term TBMM. Seat counts shift between elections through resignations and transfers, and in July 2026 they shifted sharply: on 24 July, 91 sitting deputies, led by the then CHP leader Özgür Özel, resigned from the CHP and filed the founding declaration for a new party, Yeni Parti, at the Interior Ministry. The CHP fell from 135 seats to 44, and Yeni Parti entered the chamber as the second-largest group. The figures below are the Assembly’s own, taken from the TBMM’s seat-distribution table.

The chamber has 600 seats. The eight-seat difference is made up of seats vacant at this date, through death, resignation, or appointment to an office incompatible with the mandate.