PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OUTCOMES ANNULLED IN TURKEY

PanARMENIAN.Net
02.05.2007 13:46 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey’s ruling AK Party has asked parliament to
approve early general elections amid deadlock over who should become
the country’s new president. The party formally proposed 24 June for
the polls, which were set for November.

The move comes after Turkey’s constitutional court annulled last
Friday’s vote to elect a new president.

Secularist opposition parties boycotted the vote to prevent the ruling
party candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, from winning.

They accuse Mr Gul of having a hidden Islamist agenda and say that
if he became president it would threaten Turkey’s secular tradition.

The row over the presidency has exposed deep divisions. On Sunday,
hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul in support of
secularism.

The army has warned that it will not permit Turkey’s secular traditions
to be compromised, and financial markets in Turkey have also been
hit by the crisis.

The decision to hold early elections must be debated by parliament
and voted into law.

On Tuesday, the constitutional court backed the opposition’s argument
that a quorum of two-thirds of the 550 lawmakers was not present for
the first round of presidential voting.

A total of 361 lawmakers voted – 357 for Mr Gul – but 367 were needed
to make a quorum, the court said.

Speaking after the court decision, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
said the Turkish people should resolve the row.

"The parliamentary system has been blocked… We are urgently going
to the people. Our people will make the best decisions," he said.

He called for the constitution to be changed to allow the president
to be elected by popular vote, rather than by parliament, and to
allow the president to serve up to two five-year terms, instead of
one seven-year term.

Mr Erdogan also pledged to move forward with a new round in the
presidential vote – another vote is set for Thursday – but his
candidate remains unlikely to secure the required two-thirds majority.

Analysts say Mr Erdogan’s election move is an attempt to create a
fresh mandate to end the crisis.

His party has presided over a period of strong economic growth and
could fare well in general elections, analysts believe.

If Mr Gul does become president, he will be the first incumbent to
have Islamist roots, and the first president whose wife wears an
Islamic headscarf.

Both Mr Gul and Mr Erdogan deny there is any hidden Islamist agenda,
and Mr Gul has pledged to adhere to the republic’s secular principles
if he were elected.

But critics fear that if the ruling party controls both the government
and the presidency, it could then try to move Turkey towards Islamic
rule and erode the separation of religion and state, BBC reports.