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Erbakan
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With
Additional Reporting By Saad Abdul-Majeed, IOL Turkey Correspondent
ISTANBUL,
September 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Former Islamic Turkish
prime minister Necmettin Erbakan has been banned from running in the
November 3 general election, the press reported Wednesday, September 18.
The
ban was imposed by a branch of the High Electoral Board in Konya, an
Islamic stronghold, where the 76-year-old politician was seeking to
stand as an independent candidate, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The
board based its decision on the constitutional court’s 1998 decision
to outlaw Erbakan's Welfare Party for "anti-secular
activities" and ban the veteran leader from politics until 2003.
Calling
it “a political decision that lacks legality”, Erbakan’s lawyer
said he would appeal the decision.
The
Islamic leader’s lawyer explained that the general amnesty law of 1999
has led a Turkish court to postpone the jail term handed down to
Erbakan. He added that the Constitutional Court’s decision to totally
ac quit the (former) president of the New Baath Party, Hassan Jalal
Jozal, should apply to Erbakan without double standards.
The
High Electoral Board had already banned Erbakan from standing in the
1999 general election.
The
coalition government headed by Erbakan was forced to resign in 1997,
after a year in power, following pressure from the army which has set
itself up as the guardian of Turkey's secular principles.
Following
the 1998 ban, former Welfare members later regrouped within the Virtue
(Fazilet) Party, which was itself banned last year again for
"anti-secular activities".
Fazilet
then gave way to two new parties: Saadet, led by people considered close
to Erbakan, and the Justice and Development party (AK), a moderate and
democratic party.
The
decision to ban Erbakan followed a decision by the Turkish appeals court
to annul a ruling by a lower court, which said the criminal record of AK
leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan should be erased following changes to
legislation under which he was convicted for sedition in 1998.
Erdogan's
AK party, currently in the opposition, said "a shadow will be cast
on Turkish democracy" if its leader was barred from the November 3
polls at a time when Ankara is pushing for membership of the European
Union.
The
AK party said the earlier ruling cleared all obstacles on the way of
Erdogan's bid to stand in the elections. Under Turkish electoral law, a
candidate cannot run for office if he has a criminal record.
Less
than two months before the polls, the 48-year-old Erdogan, who in the
past denounced the strictly secular system of the mainly Muslim nation,
is the strongest contender for the Premiership.
The
final decision on his eligibility rests with the Higher Electoral Board,
which will announce later this month which candidates are barred from
running in the elections.
