Armed with his Justice and Development Party's (AKP) stunning Nov. 1 election victory, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is revisiting his goal of replacing the country's parliamentary government with an executive presidency.

In the previous elections, held June 7, the rival Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) emphasized and berated Erdogan's intentions. “We won’t let you become an executive president!” was the main slogan the pro-Kurdish HDP used then. It was perhaps the most memorable slogan of the entire election campaign. The message was so influential that the HDP mustered 13.2% of the vote, backed by a remarkable number of voters who chose to support the party for the first time. Those people apparently were worried that an HDP failure to obtain the 10% national threshold would give the AKP a super-majority in parliament and allow it to change the constitution to install a presidential system.

Erdogan has long argued that Turkey should abandon the parliamentary system in favor of a presidential one equipped with strong executive powers for the head of state. Many fear that Erdogan's proposed presidential regime would mark the beginning of an irreversible path to dictatorship. The big losses the AKP suffered in the June 7 polls seemed to be linked to Erdogan’s portrayal of the vote as a sort of a plebiscite for a presidential system. AKP leaders must have come to the same conclusion, for they made no mention of the presidential system in the ensuing snap elections Nov. 1.

Yet, the presidential system debate made a quick comeback to Turkey’s agenda after the AKP scored a sweeping victory Nov. 1, garnering 49.4% of the vote. AKP representatives immediately argued that the presidential system should be opened to discussion. On Nov. 4, Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, made the clearest statement so far that constitutional amendments introducing a presidential system could be put to a referendum.