Turkey's PM Urges Citizens Living Abroad To Take Part In Presidential Election

Baku, Azerbaijan, June 20



By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:



Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged all Turkish citizens living abroad to take part in the presidential election, TRT Haber TV channel reported on June 20.



Erdogan said the upcoming election in Turkey is different for the fact that the people will choose their president, but not the country's parliament.



"Each vote in the presidential election has significance," Erdogan added.



Turkey will hold the presidential election on August 10, 2014. If none of the presidential candidates gets 51 percent of the votes in the first round, the second round will be held on August 24.



Turkish president will be elected by people in 2014, rather than the parliament as opposed to the previous presidential election, according to the referendum results of 2007.



Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, Bulent Arinc said the Turkish people's great support and municipal election's results give reason to say that the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be elected president in case of nominating his candidacy.



On June 16, Turkish oppositional Republican People's Party (CHP) nominated the former secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu as a candidate for presidential election.



Commenting on this, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said Ihsanoglu is the kind of person whose candidacy can be supported by all segments of the society.



Aside from that, two oppositional parties - Great Union Party and the Democratic Party will support Ihsanoglu's candidacy.



Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu was born in 1943. He served as the secretary-general of the OIC between January 2004 and 2013.



Edited by CN