A brawl broke out in Turkey’s parliament after controversial legislation that the opposition says could expose the next national elections to fraud was approved by MPs.

Several nationalist lawmakers and parliamentarians from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) traded punches and shoved and chased each other in the Ankara chamber.

The changes brought in by the new law permit President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to enter a formal alliance with the MHP nationalist party, allowing the smaller party to take parliamentary seats even if it fails to make it past the 10% electoral threshold. Some polls show the MHP has lost support since it started serving as the junior partner to the AKP.

Another controversial change grants the right to count ballot papers lacking official stamps. The opposition says that such an approach, first adopted in the referendum in April last year,  which saw Erdogan narrowly win a vote for an executive presidency with sweeping powers, quite clearly exposes an election to fraud.

In the presidential election scheduled for November 2019, Erdogan will need to secure 51% of the vote to be re-elected. The fact that parliament is already moving to adopt the changes may point to a possible plan to move the poll to this summer. Turkey’s overheating economy is looking somewhat fragile and waiting another year until holding the election might risk a fall-off in support for Erdogan and the government. There is currently an upsurge in support for the government among nationalist-oriented voters who back Turkey’s ongoing military incursion into northern Syria in a bid to dislodge Kurdish militias that Ankara claims are a terrorist threat.

Erdogan has for more than a year and a half essentially been at liberty to rule Turkey by decree, given the state of emergency that was brought in during July 2016 after the failed military coup.

The extra powers approved by the referendum vote will mean the scrapping of the position of prime minister and a greatly reduced role for parliament under the executive presidency.

The bill also awards authorities the power to appoint government officials to run ballot stations, relocate election stations on security grounds and allow law-enforcement officials to monitor voting inside polling stations. The government says the measures will stamp out intimidation by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the mainly Kurdish southeast. Opposition lawmakers have claimed the presence of security forces at polling stations could be used to make vote counting less transparent. The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party has, meanwhile, protested that the measures could lead to ballot boxes being moved out of districts where it has strong support.

Ankara might expect an adverse reaction from Brussels having passed the law. Turkey’s chances of joining the European Union in the foreseeable future have been reduced to zero given concerns among eurocrats and MEPs that the country is sliding towards authoritarian rule.

Currently, the AKP and MHP hold 352 seats in Turkey’s 550-seat parliament.