Turkey will hold presidential elections in 2028, senior government officials have said, opening the way for incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan to extend his rule, which could run to three decades.
“In 2028, an election will be held to re-elect our esteemed President,” Justice Minister Akin Gurlek told legislators from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Turkish city of Adana.
It follows comments by Mr Erdogan’s chief adviser stating an early election would take place in April 2028 and the President would run, in the first official confirmation that the 72 year old would seek re-election. “If 360 lawmakers back a decision to call a new election, it will be held on April 16, 2028,” Mehmet Ucum was quoted as saying in Turkish media.
It would be the last election in which Mr Erdogan could run, Mr Ucum said, as reported by pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper.
Turkey’s presidential election takes place every five years and though the next was scheduled for May 2028, it is now set to take place a month early.
Turkey’s constitution allows an incumbent president to run for office for two terms but permits a leader to attempt another mandate if parliament calls an early election during their last term.
“It seems perverse but a president is deemed to have not met the two-term limit if a term was not fully served,” economist and analyst Timothy Ash wrote in a recent briefing note on Turkey’s elections.
The comments are a departure from previous remarks made by Mr Erdogan, who last year said he would not seek re-election.
Mr Erdogan has ruled Turkey since 2003, first as Prime Minister and then as President. He has won two elections since a change to a presidential system following a referendum in 2017, which granted additional presidential power. If he won an election in April 2028, it would grant him five more years in office, until 2033, meaning he would have led Turkey for three decades.
An early election requires backing from three fifths of parliament – 360 MPs – in a vote, which Mr Erdogan’s AKP and its allies do not currently have. They control 326 seats out of 600 in Turkey’s national assembly, meaning they need 34 more votes to trigger the early election.
However, some observers believe other MPs, including a faction in a key opposition party, the CHP, and the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, could back an early election.
Although DEM has long been critical of Mr Erdogan’s government, it has been instrumental in a peace process with the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in which it has called for greater social and political freedom for Turkey’s Kurdish minority, alongside the PKK’s dissolution.
The CHP splintered this year following a court ruling ousting its leader, Ozgur Ozel, who then set up an alternative opposition party, known as the New Party. The ruling reinstated as CHP leader its former chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who had previously lost elections to Mr Erdogan.
Mr Ozel, whose New Party has attracted enough former Republican People's Party (CHP) legislators to become Turkey’s current main opposition party, has consistently called for an early election. An opinion poll last month by the Ankara-based Metropoll showed AKP behind New Party, and Mr Ozel has previously said an early election would give voters the opportunity to decide on their leader as a years-long economic crisis drags on. The war in Iran and high energy prices have contributed to a slower decrease in double-digit inflation than the Turkish government had hoped, and household incomes continue to be squeezed by price rises.
Mr Ozel reacted to presidential adviser Mr Ucum’s remarks on Friday, criticising an early election that would allow Mr Erdogan to stand again weeks before the scheduled date.
“They can’t escape this election, this ballot, by trying to fool the public with something like, ‘We held it one month early, so this is an early election.’ We will get to that ballot box, and we will win that election,” Mr Ozel said in the Turkish city of Bursa.
Government critics say there is increasing authoritarianism in Turkey, including frequent arrests of activists, journalists and opposition politicians. Popular Istanbul major Ekrem Imamoglu, who was widely seen as Mr Erdogan’s biggest challenger in any presidential race, has been in jail since March 2025 on corruption charges.
Last week a judge handed him a two-year jail sentence and a political ban in one of the numerous cases against him, while trials for others continue. The political ban means even after his release, he would struggle to compete in any future elections.
At the same time, Mr Erdogan still enjoys widespread public support: he has navigated Turkey through the regional war involving neighbouring Iran, the US and Israel. He has also concretised Ankara’s position as an indispensable partner for the West and the Nato alliance, as well as eastern and African nations.
Mr Erdogan could also run for a third term by changing the constitution, although observers believe this is a riskier option. That is because it requires either a two-thirds majority in a parliamentary vote, which the AKP and its allies may struggle to obtain, or a three-fifths majority and then a referendum, where the Turkish public could reject the changes.
