Turkey ruling party set to agree Davutoglu as PM

Turkey's ruling party is due to meet on Thursday to agree on a new leader and prime minister to replace incoming president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu the frontrunner for the job. Erdogan, who has dominated Turkey's political scene for 11 years as prime minister, cut short his holiday to attend the executive committee meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) to decide on his successor.  The press has been abuzz for days with reports that Davutoglu was favoured for promotion to become prime minister under Erdogan's presidency, which begins on August 28. Outgoing President Abdullah Gul appeared to leave the issue in no doubt, saying on Tuesday: ‘As far I understand, Ahmet Davutoglu will be the next head of government.’ After winning the August 10 election, Erdogan has been keeping the pulse of the party, asking members to put forward their nominees for AKP leader and prime minister in anonymous polls, and the results revealed overwhelming support for Davutoglu. ‘Up to 80 per cent of party members have voted for Davutoglu during intra-party polls,’ a government official said, according to AFP.