ANKARA, April 24: Turkey's Islamist-rooted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday named Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as the ruling party candidate for president, following harsh secularist objections to his own reported ambitions.
The choice of Gul, a moderate and widely respected politician, is seen as a bid to compromise with the army-backed secularist establishment, but may not stamp out all objections since Gul also comes from an Islamist background.
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in an unprecedented rally in Ankara this month to discourage Erdogan from running for president, worried that he would undermine the secular foundations of the state. The army had also issued a subtle warning to him.
Gul, 56, is virtually certain to become president thanks to the 353-seat majority the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) holds in the 550-member parliament, which will elect the president.
While he may not garner the required two-thirds majority of 367 votes in the first two rounds of voting set for Friday and May 2, he is a certainty for the third or fourth rounds on May 9 and May 15, when a simple majority of 276 suffices.
But the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) said that it will boycott the presidential elections because Gul had not been elected through reconciliation, and stressed that it would challenge the vote at the Constitutional Court.
The CHP argues that at least 367 legislators, or the number of votes the winner is required to garner, should be present in the assembly at the first round in order for voting to begin.
“We have said several times that we will go to the constitutional Court” if there are less than 367 lawmakers present in the first round of voting, CHP deputy chairman Mustafa Ozyurek told reporters here.
The AKP will now try to secure the backing of the centre-right Motherland Party or the conservative True Path Party in order to overcome the threat of a legal challenge to the vote.
Gul's wife wears the Islamic headscarf, which is seen as the symbol of political Islam and in an immediate sign that his candidacy would not be free of controversy, Gul urged respect for those who wear it. “The headscarf is a personal choice and everyone should respect it,” he said. Many hate the prospect of seeing someone in a headscarf at the presidential palace, largely considered to be the last bastion of the secular republic.—AFP
ANKARA, April 24: Turkey's Islamist-rooted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday named Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as the ruling party candidate for president, following harsh secularist objections to his own reported ambitions.
