By DPA
Ankara : Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul received majority of votes in a parliamentary poll to choose a new president but he again failed to get the required two-thirds majority, forcing parliament to vote a third time next week.
Gul received 337 votes, easily beating rival Sabahattin Cakmakoglu with 71 votes and Huseyin Tayfur Icli with 14. A total of 24 deputies voted for “none of the above”.
With no single candidate receiving the necessary 367 votes out of a total of 550 seats, parliament will meet again on Aug 28 for a third voting.
Then, however, Gul would need just a simple majority, 276 votes, to be declared president.
The Republican People’s Party (CHP) again boycotted the Friday poll in protest against Gul’s candidacy but with all other opposition parties taking part, a quorum was easily reached.
Gul’s past closeness to Islamist groups has alarmed secularists, especially the influential armed forces. The fact that Gul’s wife, Hayrunisa, wears an Islamic-style headscarf has also upset those who fear that having a “first lady” with a headscarf would undermine the secular state.
It is illegal for state employees and university students to wear headscarves. Since the Turkish republic was established in 1923 no wife of a president has covered her head.
Gul announced his candidacy last week and has since met leaders of opposition parties, trade unions and business leaders in an attempt to quell fears that he will water down strict laws separating religion and the state.
“The constitution is very clear and it is the duty of the president to protect democracy and secularism,” Gul said immediately after declaring his candidacy, a statement he has repeated in more than a dozen press conferences in the past week.
In April, when Gul first attempted to become president, the military released a statement saying it would do whatever necessary to protect secularism.
It was the military’s statement that many in Turkey believe forced the constitutional court to annul the presidential election process on the grounds that quorum in parliament had not been reached thanks to a boycott by opposition parties.
That in turn led Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to call early elections that saw his Justice and Develpment Party (AKP) returned to power.