[1][2][4] Following the general elections held on 5 June 1977, Elçi entered the parliament as a deputy for the Justice Party (AP) representing the Mardin Province.
[5] He was then among the eleven politicians, who left Süleyman Demirel's (AP) and was offered on December 22, 1977, he was offered the post of a minister in the newly formed cabinet by Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Bülent Ecevit in return of his acceptance to back up a motion of no confidence to overturn Demirel's cabinet.
[1][2][4][6] As a Minister, he attracted a lot of interest by the media as he undertook an extensive journey to the southeastern provinces on a tour accompanied by reporters.
[1][2][4][6] In 1982, Şerafettin Elçi was put on trial before the Supreme Court (Turkish: Yüce Divan) for charges on bribery and abuse of power during his office term as government minister.
After a long judicial struggle against the authorities, he succeeded in 1995 in getting the organization registered as the "Kurdish Culture and Research Foundation" (Turkish: Kürt Kültür ve Araştırma Vakfı).
[1][2][4] Elçi founded with a group of friends the "Kurdish Democratic Platform" (Turkish: Kürt Demokratik Platformu) in 1994, and served for its spokesman.
Elçi became leader of the "Participatory Democracy Party" (Turkish: Katılımcı Demokrasi Partisi) (KADEP), which was established on 19 December 2006.
[1][2][4][11] Şerafettin Elçi entered the parliament again as an independent deputy from Diyarbakır Province following the general elections held on June 12, 2011.
After a memorial before the parliament building, his corpse was taken firstly to Diyarbakır, and then was buried in Cizre in a religious funeral attended by thousands.