Voting Inconclusive, New Parliament Speaker To Be Elected On Wednesday

In the first two rounds of voting for parliament speaker, no party's candidate has managed to obtain enough votes to get elected -- a two-thirds majority -- while the main opposition parties' candidate failed to get the support of all deputies of his party.

In both rounds of voting in Parliament on Tuesday, Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) candidate for the post, got 256 votes.

The AK Party is represented by 258 deputies in Parliament, but two AK Party deputies -- Ekrem Erdem and Mustafa Yel -- were not present in Parliament during the votes. Erdem was unavailable, as he attended the funeral of one of his advisers, while Yel was sick in the hospital.

The candidate for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Deniz Baykal, who got 125 votes in the first round of voting, received 128 in the second round. The CHP is represented by 132 deputies in Parliament.
The third and fourth rounds of voting will be carried out on Wednesday.

A last-minute claim expressed by the Radikal newsportal as Parliament went on with the second round of voting for speaker indicates that AK Party's candidate is the most probable candidate to win the race.

According to the news portal, Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said the MHP would not support a candidate whom the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) would also support.
“Should the HDP announce tomorrow its support for Deniz Baykal for speaker of parliament, then we will never vote for Deniz Baykal,” Bahçeli was quoted as saying.
Given the number of deputies for different parties in Parliament, Bahçeli's statement destroys the opposition's chances of getting a candidate elected against the AK Party's Yılmaz.
In both votes, which took place after several members of Parliament who were not present in Parliament's original oath-taking ceremony last week had taken their oaths, five deputies did not cast a vote.
The CHP's Baykal is one of the five deputies who did not vote. Baykal did not vote as he headed the voting sessions as interim parliamentary speaker.
In the first vote, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu and Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat, nominees from the MHP and HDP, respectively, each got one vote more than the number of deputies their parties enjoy in Parliament, 81 votes.
Both the MHP and HDP candidates received 80 votes in the second tour.
Two votes were blank in the first round of voting, while a single blank vote appeared in the second round. One vote was not valid in the second route.
Other than the two AK Party deputies who were not present, two HDP deputies, one of whom is HDP Co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ, were not present during the vote either.
The MHP deputies would not vote for the HDP candidate, as they accuse the HDP of being closely affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU.
The speaker is elected by secret ballot and a super majority of 367 votes is required for a candidate to be elected in the first two rounds of voting.
In the third round of voting, candidates need an absolute majority to be elected; that is, the votes of at least 276 deputies in a 550-member Parliament.
Should Parliament also fail to elect a speaker on the third vote, in the final fourth round a simple majority is enough for a candidate to get elected.
Acting Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu dismissed speculation that his party would support an opposition candidate as a tactical move in the third round of voting in a bid for its candidate to finally emerge victorious in the race. “We will support him [our candidate] until the last minute of the last round of voting [for Parliament speaker],” Davutoğlu said early in the same day.
Davutoğlu's remark is a response to rumors circulating that some 60 AK Party deputies could vote in the third round for the pro-Kurdish HDP candidate in a bid to eliminate a stronger rival, the CHP's Baykal.
Baykal could beat the AK Party's nominee in the two final votes should all the three opposition parties support him.
Speaking in the parliamentary group meeting of the AK Party, Davutoğlu also dismissed rumors that the election of the speaker could be a road marker for the shape of the coalition government to be formed, stressing that AK Party would not use the election as an element of possible coalition negotiations with a party. Stressing that it is disgraceful to use a colleague as a negotiating tool, Davutoğlu said: “Given that our candidate is İsmet Yılmaz, I demand that all the 258 [AK Party deputies] be behind him.” (Cihan/Today’s Zaman)