Congress in 2015 almost prompted Yıldırım to run against him. Election as AKP leader Following the announcement of Davutoğlu's resignation, Yıldırım emerged as the frontrunner in the field of potential successors, which included Erdoğan's son-in-law and Energy Minister Berat Albayrak amongst other senior AKP politicians known for their loyalty to Erdoğan. On 16 May, 353 AKP provincial, district, youth and women's wing representatives were invited to the party headquarters to conduct an internal poll on their preferred next leader, with Yıldırım topping the preferences of the 315 representatives attending. On 17 May, a similar poll was conducted with the AKP's parliamentary group. Despite the internal party opinion polling, President Erdoğan was observed to have effectively hand-picked Yıldırım to succeed Davutoğlu due to him being a close ally for two decades. On 19 May 2016, Yıldırım was announced as the sole candidate for the Justice and Development Party leadership by the party Central Executive Committee (MKYK). He was elected as leader unopposed during the party's 2nd Extraordinary Congress on 22 May 2016, winning 1,405 of the 1,411 votes (with the remaining 6 being declared invalid or blank). A new Central Executive Board was elected alongside the party leader, with numerous senior AKP politicians, some of which had been seen as potential leadership candidates alongside Yıldırım, being left off the unified list. Executive Presidency and new constitution Delivering a statement on his government's program shortly after being appointed as Prime Minister on 24 May 2016, Yıldırım set out the main goals of his government to abolish the parliamentary system and bring about an executive presidency, which would require 330 of 550 votes in Parliament to hold a referendum or 367 votes to enact directly without the need for a referendum. Soon after becoming Prime Minister, Yıldırım claimed that the fact that the President was now elected by popular vote rather than by Parliament had created a power struggle and confusion amongst the population, resulting in the need for a transition to an executive presidency. During his first speech to the AKP parliamentary group since becoming Prime Minister, Yıldırım announced that his government would begin work on drafting a new constitution with a matter of urgency, claiming that the current Constitution of Turkey, which was written during the 1980 coup d'état, was outdated for the AKP's 2023 vision for the centenary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic. He called on opposition parties