The 3rd Justice and Development Party Extraordinary Congress took place on 20 and 21 May 2017 in order to elect a party leader and members to the party congress of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).[1] The party's founder and first leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is expected to be a candidate for the post, having left the leadership upon his election as President in 2014.[2] Having been initially required to sever his political party relations on grounds of impartiality, a constitutional referendum in 2017 turned Turkey into an executive presidency, allowing Erdoğan to return to the AKP and become its leader.[3]
