Turkey is voting today on whether to give their president expansive new powers

Turkish referendum vote
(Image credit: Hakan Goktepe/Getty Images)

Turks began voting Sunday on a constitutional referendum that, if approved, would fundamentally restructure the country's parliamentary system, giving broad new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and ensuring Erdogan stays in office for at least another decade.

Under the new proposal, the president would be able to dissolve the legislature, rule by executive order, and gain new authority over administrative and judicial appointments. Here's a breakdown from Al Jazeera explaining further changes:

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.