Turkey’s parliament has begun debating proposed changes to the constitution that would formalize the sweeping powers already exercised by the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Jan. 9 session got off to a stormy start as opposition lawmakers resorted to filibustering to delay voting. Outside the parliament building, police used pepper spray to disperse hundreds of demonstrators protesting the amendment of the constitution.

The new measures would allow Erdogan to abolish the premiership, dissolve parliament at any time, appoint 12 of the 15 members of the Constitutional Court, serve a further two terms (until 2029) and perhaps even retain his title as chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Erdogan insists that such changes are necessary if Turkey is to take its rightful place as a global power. Critics believe that if anything, they will cement one-man rule and accelerate Turkey’s slide into a full-blown Soviet-style dictatorship in which elections are no more than a rubber stamp.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party is expected to vote overwhelmingly against the proposal, as is the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). However, 12 HDP deputies, including co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, are in jail and will thus be denied a vote. In a letter to the parliament, Demirtas challenged the legitimacy of the proceedings, writing, “[Our] right to vote has been effectively usurped.”

Most pundits think the bill will garner the required 330 votes in the 550-member chamber to put the constitutional package to a referendum because the AKP has secured the support of the far-right, ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) by helping its leader, Devlet Bahceli, face down a leadership challenge and ratcheting up the conflict against Kurdish militants in Turkey and Syria. Besides, should Erdogan get his way, and he usually does, balloting will not be secret, a tactic meant to forestall possible defections within the AKP.