The 2nd Justice and Development Party Extraordinary Congress was a party convention of the ruling Justice and Development Party of

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

held on 22 May 2016. The congress, announced on 4 May 2016, had been long speculated by politicians and political commentators who had observed a severe deterioration in relations between Prime Minister and incumbent AKP leader

Ahmet Davutoğlu Ahmet Davutoğlu (; born 26 February 1959) is a Turkish academic, politician and former diplomat who served as the List of Prime Ministers of Turkey, 26th Prime Minister of Turkey and Leader of the Justice and Development Party (Turkey), Justice ...

and the AKP's founder and former leader, President

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

. Davutoğlu announced that he would not stand for re-election as party leader. Transport and Communications Minister

Binali Yıldırım Binali Yıldırım (; born 20 December 1955) is a Turkish politician who served as the List of Prime Ministers of Turkey, 27th and last prime minister of Turkey from 2016 to 2018 and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly from 2018 to 2019. He w ...

was the sole candidate for the party leadership, announced by the AKP Central Executive Committee (MKYK) on 19 May 2016. Yıldırım had been collecting signatures to launch a leadership bid in time for the last Ordinary Congress of 2015, ceasing only when Davutoğlu and Erdoğan agreed on a joint list of Central Executive Decision Board candidates days before the congress took place. He was elected with 1,405 votes.

Potential candidates

Pro-Erdoğan candidates

Media reports have indicated that the frontrunner would be handpicked by President

. Ten potential candidates have been identified by political commentators. By 16 May,

emerged as the frontrunner after a secret poll amongst AKP MPs allegedly placed him well ahead in terms of preference than the other candidates. It was alleged that the AKP headquarters sent memos to the provincial and district associations of the party announcing that Yıldırım would be the next leader. *

, Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication and former special advisor to President Erdoğan *

Berat Albayrak Berat Albayrak ( born 21 February 1978) is a Turkish businessman and politician. He served as the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources from 2015 to 2018 and as the minister of treasury and finance from 2018 to 2020. In the general elections ...

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources The minister of energy and natural resources () is the minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). In addition to NRCan, the minister oversees the federal government's natural resource ...

and son-in-law of President Erdoğan *

Numan Kurtulmuş Numan Kurtulmuş (born 15 September 1959) is a Turkish politician and academic who is currently the speaker of the Grand National Assembly. He served as Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey in the 62nd, 63rd, 64th and 65th AKP governments between ...

Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey The deputy prime minister of Turkey was official deputy of the prime minister of Turkey. Conventionally all of the junior partners in a coalition got one deputy, and they were ranked according to the size of their respective parties. See also ...

and former leader of the

People's Voice Party The People's Voice Party ( Turkish ''Halkın Sesi Partisi'', abbreviated HSP but using the self-styled abbreviation ''HAS PARTİ'', which literally means "PURE PARTY") was a religious conservative political party in Turkey. It was founded on 1 No ...

Bekir Bozdağ Bekir Bozdağ (born 1 April 1965) is a Turkish lawyer and politician of Kurdish origin and former Minister of Justice. On 6 July 2011 he was appointed the Deputy Prime Minister in the third cabinet of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. On ...

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

and former

Mehmet Müezzinoğlu Mehmet Müezzinoğlu (born January 9, 1955) is a Turkish physician and politician, who served as the Minister of Labour and Social Security between 2016 and 2017, and the Minister of Health from 2013 to 2016. Early years He was born on January ...

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

Mustafa Şentop Mustafa Şentop (born 6 August 1968) is a Turkish people, Turkish politician from the Justice and Development Party (Turkey), Justice and Development Party (AKP) who is currently a Member of Parliament#Turkey, Member of Parliament and has been i ...

, Chair of the Constitutional Commission of the

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...

Efkan Ala Efkan Ala (born 21 February 1965) is a Turkish politician and former civil servant who served as the Minister of the Interior from November 2015 to August 2016;. He previously held the same post from 2013 to June 2015 despite not being a member ...

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

Mehmet Ali Şahin Mehmet Ali Şahin (born 16 September 1950) is a Turkish politician. He was the Speaker of the Parliament of Turkey from 2009 to 2011. He was a member of the parliament for three terms from Istanbul Province and from Antalya Province of the r ...

, former

Speaker of the Grand National Assembly This article lists the speakers of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The name of the parliament of Turkey, originally and currently the Grand National Assembly of Turkey () since its establishment on 23 April 1920, has for short periods be ...

, former

and former

Faruk Çelik Faruk Çelik (born 17 January 1956) is a Turkish politician and a Member of Parliament for Bursa of the ruling Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party may refer to several political parties, the best-known ones being: * Ju ...

, Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and former Minister of Labour and Social Security *

İsmet Yılmaz İsmet Yılmaz (born 10 December 1961) is a Turkish politician who was a member of the Grand National Assembly from 2011 to 2023. Previously he was Minister of National Defense and Minister of National Education. Yılmaz also briefly served as ...

, Minister of National Defence and former

File:Portrait of Binali Yıldırım (cropped).jpg,

, Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication and former special advisor to President Erdoğan File:Mehmet Ali Sahin.jpg,

, former

and former

File:Faruk Çelik (cropped).jpg,

, Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and former Minister of Labour and Social Security File:İsmet Yılmaz.jpg,

, Minister of National Defence and former

Erdoğan-critical candidates

It has been reported that if the inner-party opposition that is critical to Erdoğan's dominance is unhappy with the emerging candidate, they would field their own candidate. Their most likely candidate is expected to be

Ali Babacan Ali Babacan (; born 4 April 1967) is a Turkish politician, economist, and engineer. He is the founder and current leader of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA). He served 13 years as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Economy, Chie ...

, who is internationally recognised for his economic policies while serving as a government minister. *

, former Minister of the Economy, former

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

and former

File:Ali Babacan - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2012 crop.jpg,

, former Minister of the Economy, former

and former

Results

References

{{Justice and Development Party congresses 2016 in Turkey Justice and Development Party (Turkey) 2016 elections in Turkey May 2016 in Turkey 2010s political conferences 2016 conferences