Turkish presidential election update & correction

By AviShalom

Thanks to a comment at an earlier Fruits & Votes thread, I can now clarify where things stand in the process of electing a president in Turkey. If I understand correctly, the newly elected parliament must still attempt to elect a president, because the term of the current president has expired and thus it is not constitutionally permissible to wait for possible voter approval in October of the referendum on direct presidential elections.

The moderately Islamist ruling AKP again may put forward Abdullah Güll, the candidate that the opposition blocked in previous rounds of voting. It was the stalemate over electing a president in parliament that trigged the early parliamentary elections just concluded.

With the AKP majority now reduced, it could again be impossible for parliament to elect a president. However, failure to do so could again trigger an early election for parliament, so I would expect the opposition to back down, given the huge surge in votes obtained by the AKP last Sunday.

If parliament does elect a president, then the first direct presidential election would not be held until 2014 (assuming the president elected by this new parliament serves a full term and that voters approve the referendum), because the constitution currently provides for a seven-year term.

More on Turkey in several posts at Fruits & Votes.