Turkish parliament to elect new president after turmoil
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
ANKARA, Aug 20 (AFP): Turkey's new parliament braced Monday for a presidential vote that is almost sure to end with the election of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, who has sought to calm fears over his Islamist past by pledging loyalty to the country's secular system.
It is Gul's second bid for the presidency, after his first sparked a political crisis in April and forced snap general elections on July 22.
Gul's ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a landslide victory in the polls which it hailed as a popular mandate to re-nominate the foreign minister.
Gul, 56, is unlikely to be elected in Monday's first voting session, which starts at 3:00 p.m. (1200 GMT), or in the second round Friday, as the AKP's 340 seats fall short of the required two-thirds majority in the 550-seat parliament.
But he should easily secure victory in the third round scheduled for August 28, when a simple majority of 276 will suffice.
There are two other candidates -- former defence minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu from the right-wing Nationalist Action Party and Tayfun Icli from the centre-left Democratic Left Party -- but neither are given a realistic hope of besting Gul.
In a front-page editorial Monday, the liberal daily Milliyet said Gul's "unfortunate" past criticisms of secularism had fuelled the concerns that his election would cause "irreparable damage" to the principle of separating state and religion.
It is Gul's second bid for the presidency, after his first sparked a political crisis in April and forced snap general elections on July 22.
Gul's ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a landslide victory in the polls which it hailed as a popular mandate to re-nominate the foreign minister.
Gul, 56, is unlikely to be elected in Monday's first voting session, which starts at 3:00 p.m. (1200 GMT), or in the second round Friday, as the AKP's 340 seats fall short of the required two-thirds majority in the 550-seat parliament.
But he should easily secure victory in the third round scheduled for August 28, when a simple majority of 276 will suffice.
There are two other candidates -- former defence minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu from the right-wing Nationalist Action Party and Tayfun Icli from the centre-left Democratic Left Party -- but neither are given a realistic hope of besting Gul.
In a front-page editorial Monday, the liberal daily Milliyet said Gul's "unfortunate" past criticisms of secularism had fuelled the concerns that his election would cause "irreparable damage" to the principle of separating state and religion.