Turkey's presidency vote annulled

[Shammu]

Turkey's presidency vote annulled

The constitutional court in Turkey has annulled last Friday's parliamentary vote to elect a new president.

The only candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, failed to win the required majority after a boycott by secularist opposition parties.

The parties, which accuse Mr Gul of a hidden Islamist agenda, asked the court to rule that there was no quorum.

The government vowed to restart the election process on Wednesday but it was unclear what form that would take.

Government spokesman Cemil Cicek said the ruling AK party would propose its candidate again.

But another ruling party lawmaker, Sadullah Ergin, said only a timetable for a new vote would be set.

Army concern

The constitutional court backed the opposition's argument that a quorum of two-thirds of the 550 lawmakers was not present for Friday's vote. Its ruling cannot be appealed.

A total of 361 lawmakers voted - 357 for Mr Gul - but 367 were needed to make a quorum.

After the ruling, Mr Cicek said the government would be prepared to meet an opposition call for an early general election provided parliament agreed to lower the age limit for MPs to 25.

AK believes this will boost its electoral chances.

Mr Gul and Mr Erdogan are both from AK, which has Islamist roots and an overwhelming majority in parliament. They deny there is any hidden agenda.

But the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul says the army had made it clear it would not tolerate Mr Gul as president.

It warned it would defend the separation of state and religion, the legacy of the state's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Our correspondent says the court is officially independent but had been under immense pressure to reach precisely this verdict. It is one that is likely to divide Turkey further, she says.

On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul in support of secularism.

Mr Erdogan appealed for national unity in a televised address to the nation on Monday.

Turkey's presidency vote annulled

[Shammu]

Turkey poll halted over Islamist lean

By Amberin Zaman in Istanbul
Last Updated: 7:42am BST 02/05/2007

Turkey lurched deeper into political crisis last night after a court halted the country's presidential election.

The constitutional court annulled the first round vote of the ruling party's candidate, Abdullah Gul, amid fears that he wanted to take the country in a pro-Islamic direction. The court ruled that not enough MPs took part in the vote last Friday for it to be valid.

The decision, which comes as a blow to the country's Islamic-leaning government, looks likely to force an early general election.

The military sees itself as the guarantor of the secular state and has ousted four governments in the past 50 years, most recently in 1997 when it acted against a cabinet which included Mr Gül.

A spokesman for Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, said last night that he was considering holding a general election "as soon as possible" following the court's decision.

A government spokesman said that it would defy the ruling and go ahead with another vote on Mr Gül's candidacy in parliament today.

"What we need to cast off and get rid of these shadows is early (general) elections as soon as possible," Mr Gül said after the court decision.

The 550-seat Ankara parliament, in which Mr Erdogan's AK party has 352 MPs, holds elections for president every seven years.

If it decides to call a snap general election, the AK party wants opposition agreement to lower the minimum age for MPs from 35 to 25, which it believes could boost its chances of returning with a bigger majority. Secularists fear if the AK party secures control of the presidency as well as the government it will erode the non-religious system of government set down by the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Attaturk. The party denies the charge.

The state, most of whose citizens are Muslims, continues to aspire to membership of the European Union. It remains a key regional member of Nato and is an ally of the United States.

But many inside the country fear that political and constitutional instability could scupper its chances of joining the EU and cost its economy much-needed inward investment.

The crisis has hit Turkey's developing financial market hard. It suffered a record fall on Monday and continued to slide yesterday.

Increasingly violent street protests have exposed a widening gulf between the ruling party and the secular opposition.

Before yesterday's ruling, almost 700 people were arrested after violent clashes with police during an unofficial May Day march in Istanbul.

Demonstrators were marking the 30th anniversary of a mass shooting at the annual event by a lone gunman.

But as tensions rose, riot police fired tear gas and used water cannon to break up the crowds. Youths threw Molotov cocktails and set cars ablaze before police fired live rounds into the air as a warning.

Turkey poll halted over Islamist lean