Ankara, Turkey – Turkey’s highest court sided with the secular opposition Tuesday and annulled a parliamentary vote for the presidential candidate of the Islamic-rooted ruling party.
The government said after the ruling that it would hold another vote for the presidency today. But a leading deputy, Sadullah Ergin, said there would be no vote and that lawmakers would only discuss a new timetable for one.
It was unclear why the government would want to proceed with another presidential vote, knowing that the process could again lead to failure. The conflicting statements about whether a vote would take place suggested a degree of disarray in senior government circles.
Late in the day, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a constitutional amendment to allow election of the president by popular vote.
The prospect of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in the presidency prompted fears of a rise in political Islam that could erode Turkey’s secular tradition, and hundreds of thousands of pro- secular demonstrators have called for the government to step down.
At least 700,000 protesters marched in Istanbul on Sunday to demand the resignation of the government, and Erdogan said new parliamentary elections could be held as early as June 24.
The Turkish stock market continued its slide amid the political uncertainty, dropping 3.2 percent ahead of the Constitutional Court’s decision. The index sank 6.3 percent Monday.
Turkey, a candidate for European Union membership, has been recovering from a 2001 financial crisis, curbing inflation, and pushing ahead with banking reform and other initiatives backed by the International Monetary Fund.
The government had hoped to strengthen its authority with Gul’s bid to become Turkey’s 11th president. But the opposition Republican People’s Party boycotted the first round of voting for president Friday and asked for it to be canceled, saying the vote was invalid because a quorum of two-thirds of Turkey’s 550 legislators was not present.
