ANKARA, Dec 24: Turkish lawmakers on Tuesday reaffirmed their backing for a set of constitutional amendments aimed at allowing the ruling party’s banned leader to become prime minister, in defiance of a veto imposed by the president last week.

In a first-round ballot, more than 400 MPs in the 550-seat house — both from the government and the opposition — voted in favour of the amendments which would pave the way for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who heads the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), to run in future elections, the Anatolia news agency reported.

A second and final vote is scheduled for Friday, and the overwhelming support in Tuesday’s vote is seen as a sign that the package will be passed.

Last week President Ahmet Necdet Sezer vetoed the constitutional changes and sent them back to parliament to be reconsidered on the grounds that they were designed specifically to get Erdogan elected.

Erdogan, 48, was banned from taking part in the elections on Nov 3 — in which his party won an overwhelming majority of seats in parliament — because of a 1998 conviction for sedition imposed on him for reciting a poem with religious tones at a political rally.

The ban meant that he was also barred from becoming prime minister and subsequently the AKP, a conservative party born of a banned religious movement, set up a government headed by his right-hand man, Abdullah Gul.

The constitutional changes aim to allow Erdogan to run in a by-election as early as February or March next year following a decision by the electoral board to cancel elections results in the southeastern province of Siirt.

Sezer does not have the right to veto the amendments a second time, but he can put them to a referendum, a lengthy procedure that could threaten the tight calendar for the Siirt elections.

Many observers believe Sezer will choose not to call a referendum so as not to create a political crisis at home at a time when the country is dominated by the prospect of an invasion of Iraq.—AFP