AKP Nominates Gul for Presidency

PM Erdogan nominates current Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as his partys presidential candidate. Ruling AKP holding the majority of seats in the parliament, Gul is expected to be elected in coming days while critics say the system is anti-democratic.

Ankara

Following a long period of mistery the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) disclosed their candidate for the upcoming presidential elections as the current Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Gul.

The country had been divided in half for weeks now regarding a possible presidency of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Fearing from his Islamist background, the Kemalists -namely the main opposition People"s Republican Party (CHP), the current president Ahmet Necdet Sezer, the army and several other heads of state institutions such as the judiciary and the Council of Higher Education- strongly opposed to Erdogan"s candidacy.

In an attenmpt to discourage him, around 300 thousand people gathered in a "Republican meeting" in Ankara two weeks ago. Another meeting is scheduled to take place this weekend in Istanbul.

AKP has the majority

The president is elected by the National Assembly in Turkey. As the AKP holds a strong majority at the assebly, theoritically their candidate would be elected.

Although this is the situation, in a case where Erdogan wouldn´t be a candidate, there were several other names that took to the front as the next president. In a series of meetings with party members and ministers, Erdogan tried to secure the unity in his party.

The current head of the National Assembly Bulent Arinc and several other senior party members as Vecdi Gonul had featured in guesses dubbed as "presidential lottery" in the press.

"The system itself is anti-democratic"

While Gul is seen as a milder, more diplomatic personage with regard to Erdogan, many still oppose to his candidacy, saying someone with a positive attitude towards democratic and human rights should held the chair while others say that the eletoral system itself is anti-democratic and anti-representative.

Bianet has proposed several candidates fitting into the definition above in earlier weeks and now we asked our candidates their opinions about the candidacy of Abdullah Gul.

Performance actress and human rights activist Zeynep Tanbay said without a through critique of the electoral process brought by the constitution of 1982 prepared after the military coup, the president would't be considered as a true representation of the will of the people.

Turkish Physicians' Associaton chair Gencay Gursoy and renowned actor Tarik Akan agree.

They remind that the AKP secured the majority at the Assembly by only a third of the votes in elections in 2002 and cricize the legitimacy of a president elected by this National Assembly.(EU)