Global Courant
INTERPRETER
Incumbent President Erdogan’s alliance has won a majority in the 600-seat parliament, which now elects its president.
After tense presidential and parliamentary elections, a vote is now being held to elect the next speaker of the Turkish parliament.
MPs will decide who will lead Turkey’s Grand National Assembly (TBMM) in its 28th term, where the alliance has won a majority for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Who’s running?
Several heavyweight politicians and economists, including Istanbul representatives, have thrown their hats in the ring.
Numan Kurtulmus, a representative of the AK Party (Justice and Development Party) in Istanbul and its deputy chairman, is the candidate for both Erdogan’s party and the nationalist MHP (Nationalist Movement Party).
Kurtulmus was Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey between 2014 and 2017 and Minister of Culture and Tourism between 2017 and 2018.
The candidate for the Social Democratic CHP (Republican People’s Party) is Tekin Bingol, a current Ankara representative and deputy leader of the party since 2014.
Adana representative Tulay Hatimogullari is the candidate of the leftist YSP (Green Left Party). She is an economist who was co-chair of the YSP between 2016 and 2018.
Economist and banker Mustafa Cihan Pacaci, another representative in Istanbul, is the candidate of the IYI party (the Good Party). Pacaci served as deputy general manager at Sekerbank and chairman and general manager at several major Turkish banks, including Etibank, Halkbank and Ziraat Bank.
The DEVA (Democracy and Progress Party) candidate, Mustafa Yeneroglu, is a lawyer and representative for Istanbul.
Yeneroglu was a member of the AK Party, serving as a representative in Istanbul between 2017 and 2018 and serving on their central decision-making and executive council. He resigned in 2019 and joined DEVA a year later.
The Future Party has chosen Antalya representative Serap Yazici Ozbudun, a constitutional law professor, as its candidate.
TIP’s (Workers’ Party of Turkey) candidate and Hatay representative Serafettin Can Atalay is an imprisoned lawyer and activist. He was sentenced to 18 years in connection with the anti-government protests in Gezi Park in 2013. His candidacy was submitted on his behalf by TIP head Erkan Bas.
How does voting work?
Candidates were given five days from June 2 to put forward their names for the post of chief of parliament who presides over the 600-member Grand National Assembly.
The parties officially notified parliament of their selection on Tuesday, and voting began at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
A candidate can secure the presidency on the first ballot if he wins at least 400 votes. Voting continues to a next round of at least 400 votes if no one succeeds in the first round.
If extended to a third round, a majority of 301 votes will determine who goes to the position. If no candidate achieves this majority, the two candidates with the most votes will advance to the fourth round, where the candidate with the most votes will ultimately become Speaker of the Parliament.
What’s the background?
The race for the presidency of Turkey’s parliament comes days after Erdogan took his oath as president after emerging victorious in a historic runoff that extended his two-decade reign by another five years.
Remaining at the helm, with a new cabinet, the 69-year-old will face an intense economic crisis exacerbated in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people.
His 52.2 percent victory over rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu with 47.8 percent came after May 14 parliamentary elections gave his alliance a majority.
Erdogan’s AK party has 268 seats in parliament, followed by the CHP with 169 representatives.
