Ruling party wants Erdogan presidential bid

A majority of deputies in Turkey's ruling AK Party have voted in a secret ballot in favor of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan running in the country's first direct presidential election in August, senior party officials said on Thursday. The vote was meant as an informal test of the level of support within the party for a presidential bid by Erdogan, which would mean him stepping down as party leader, but he alone will decide on his candidacy, his aides have said. Erdogan, who has dominated politics for more than a decade, has made little secret of his ambition to run for the presidency and his party's strong showing in local elections last month, despite a corruption scandal dogging his inner circle, has strengthened expectations he will do so. But his aides have said his determination to press ahead with a fight against U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally he accuses of contriving the graft scandal as part of a plot to undermine him, could instead see him stay on for a fourth term as prime minister, currently a more powerful post, according to Reuters.