ANKARA (Reuters) - Four months after Turkey's military and secular elite blocked Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul's presidential bid, a newly elected parliament will make a fresh attempt on Monday to get the former Islamist elected.
The religious-minded AK Party has been strengthened by a convincing win in July's general election, called early to defuse a crisis over the presidency, and Gul is widely expected to be elected this time around despite some fierce opposition.
Monday's vote is the first of up to four rounds and Gul is likely to be elected in the third session on August 28 when he needs only a simple majority -- which the AK Party has.
Before that he needs two thirds of the votes to win, unlikely as the ultra-nationalist opposition MHP has fielded its own candidate, Sabahattin Cakmakoglu, and the pro-Kurdish DTP has signaled it will not vote for Gul. Leftist DSP is also fielding its own candidate, Tayfun Icli, state media reported.
The MHP has however made Gul's election more likely, just by agreeing to take part. Blocking the first vote in April was a court ruling that two thirds of parliament had to be present -- impossible amid an opposition boycott.
Meanwhile the secularist army, which undermined the April vote with a sternly worded anti-government statement, has signalled it has said all it plans to say.
The army ousted as recently as 1997 a government in which Gul served because of its perceived Islamism.
Gul says he backs secularism but opposition from the secularist elite remains fierce, in part because his wife wears the Muslim headscarf, as some fear he wants to break down the division between state and religion.
The opposition CHP has said it will boycott Gul's presidential receptions and will again be absent for the vote.
A Gul presidency will make the next government's job easier as it will no longer have to get laws and appointments past President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who has frequently vetoed their legislation, such as a wide-ranging welfare reform.
One of the new president's first tasks will be to approve Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's new cabinet as incumbent Sezer, an arch-secularist, declined to review the list last week.
VOWS IMPARTIALITY
Gul, the mild-mannered English-speaking architect of Turkey's EU bid, spent last week seeking support from civil society groups. He won cautious backing from leading industrialist group TUSIAD, which had previously called for compromise over the presidency.
Gul, who has lived in Saudi Arabia and Britain and has good relations with foreign leaders, has said he will be an impartial president and try to represent all Turks.
He will quit the AK Party, where he has been number two, but commentators say he will need to prove his independence.
"To prove himself independent from the AK Party he may veto some of their measures ... To make sure that he looks independent of the government," said Ayse Ayata, political science professor at Ankara's Middle East Technical University, adding however that he may not do so over important measures.
Gul has said he will continue to support Turkey's EU bid -- which has been struggling since last year -- and Ayata said using his own initiative in foreign affairs could be another way to show distance from his former party colleagues.
The religious-minded AK Party has been strengthened by a convincing win in July's general election, called early to defuse a crisis over the presidency, and Gul is widely expected to be elected this time around despite some fierce opposition.
Monday's vote is the first of up to four rounds and Gul is likely to be elected in the third session on August 28 when he needs only a simple majority -- which the AK Party has.
Before that he needs two thirds of the votes to win, unlikely as the ultra-nationalist opposition MHP has fielded its own candidate, Sabahattin Cakmakoglu, and the pro-Kurdish DTP has signaled it will not vote for Gul. Leftist DSP is also fielding its own candidate, Tayfun Icli, state media reported.
The MHP has however made Gul's election more likely, just by agreeing to take part. Blocking the first vote in April was a court ruling that two thirds of parliament had to be present -- impossible amid an opposition boycott.
Meanwhile the secularist army, which undermined the April vote with a sternly worded anti-government statement, has signalled it has said all it plans to say.
The army ousted as recently as 1997 a government in which Gul served because of its perceived Islamism.
Gul says he backs secularism but opposition from the secularist elite remains fierce, in part because his wife wears the Muslim headscarf, as some fear he wants to break down the division between state and religion.
The opposition CHP has said it will boycott Gul's presidential receptions and will again be absent for the vote.
A Gul presidency will make the next government's job easier as it will no longer have to get laws and appointments past President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who has frequently vetoed their legislation, such as a wide-ranging welfare reform.
One of the new president's first tasks will be to approve Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's new cabinet as incumbent Sezer, an arch-secularist, declined to review the list last week.
VOWS IMPARTIALITY
Gul, the mild-mannered English-speaking architect of Turkey's EU bid, spent last week seeking support from civil society groups. He won cautious backing from leading industrialist group TUSIAD, which had previously called for compromise over the presidency.
Gul, who has lived in Saudi Arabia and Britain and has good relations with foreign leaders, has said he will be an impartial president and try to represent all Turks.
He will quit the AK Party, where he has been number two, but commentators say he will need to prove his independence.
"To prove himself independent from the AK Party he may veto some of their measures ... To make sure that he looks independent of the government," said Ayse Ayata, political science professor at Ankara's Middle East Technical University, adding however that he may not do so over important measures.
Gul has said he will continue to support Turkey's EU bid -- which has been struggling since last year -- and Ayata said using his own initiative in foreign affairs could be another way to show distance from his former party colleagues.
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