AKP Candidate Elected As Turkey's Parliament Speaker

Turkey's parliament has elected İsmet Yılmaz, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate and incumbent defence minister, as its speaker with "covert support" from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

The first two rounds of voting were held on June 30, but none of the four candidates gathered the required support of 367 members of parliament in the 550-seat assembly.

The third round of voting was held on July 1 and no candidate received the required 276 votes to be elected. In the fouth round wherein the candidate with the most total votes will be elected speaker, Yılmaz received led with 258 votes.

Speaking to reporters after his party's group meeting on July 1, MHP head Devlet Bahçeli repeated his vow that the MHP's parliamentary group would refuse to vote in the same bloc as the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the third and fourth round of voting.

After the MHP's candidate, former Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) head Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, was eliminated in the third round, MHP deputies apparently did what Bahçeli said. the Republican People's Party's (CHP) candidate, former party head Deniz Baykal, received only 182 votes against Yılmaz in the fourth round, while 78 invalid and 29 empty votes were cast. Meanwhile, only some HDP deputies voted for Baykal while others cast empty votes.

Political analysts have labelled Bahçeli's move as covert support for the AKP candidate, despite the MHP leader's stinging criticism of AKP co-founder and current Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan.

Coalition negotiations to begin

The AKP lost its single-party majority in the June 7 parliamentary election. It now has 258 seats in parliament, while the CHP has 132 seats and the MHP and HDP both have 80 seats. Coalition negotiations will formally begin after the election of the parliament speaker.

Yılmaz received 256 votes, while Baykal received 125 votes in the first round on June 30. MHP and HDP candidates followed with 81 votes for each.

In the second round, the number of votes for AKP nominee Yılmaz remained the same, while Baykal's votes increased to 128, as the candidates of the other two parties lost one vote for each.

In the third round on July 1, Yılmaz received 259 votes, Baykal received 129 votes, while İhsanoğlu received 80. Fırat's votes, on the other hand, dropped to 78 as two HDP candidates were not able to attend the session due to personal reasons.

In the fourth and final round, Yılmaz received 258 votes, while Baykal lagged behind with 182.

(Photo) - Ankara