ANKARA: Nearly three-quarters of Turks have no objections to a first lady wearing the headscarf, but want the president to be impartial, a public opinion poll published on Tuesday showed.

The survey, conducted by the respected Konda company for the Milliyet newspaper, showed that 72.6 per cent of those polled in this secular Muslim country would view it as “normal” if the wife of the president covers up.

The poll was conducted ahead of a decisive third-round of voting in parliament on Tuesday to elect the next president. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist, is poised for a virtually certain victory.

The Konda poll found that 19.8 per cent would be “annoyed” by a first lady who covers up and 7.6 per cent had no opinion on the issue.

The headscarf is banned in government offices and universities in Turkey.

Nearly 53 per cent marked impartiality as the most important quality the president should have, followed by 28.4 per cent who said the head of state must be loyal to the values of the Turkish Republic, secularism prominent among them.

The percentage of those who want a “devout” president was 12.6, according to the poll.—AFP