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Erdogan deserved to become premier after AKP landslide victory: Baykal
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With
additional reporting by Saad Abdul-Meguid, IOL Turkey Correspondent
ISTANBUL,
November 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The secularist
opposition in Turkey’s new parliament has voiced support for the
lifting of legal barriers that keep election winner Erdogan from
becoming a prime minister, a Turkish newspaper reported Sunday, November
10.
Republican
People’s Party (CHP) chairman Deniz Baykal told the Milliyet
daily that Erdogan deserved to become prime minister after the landslide
victory of his AKP.
“The
election outcome shows that this is the will of the people,” he said.
The
legislation, which has allowed the courts to jail a number of other
Islamist and pro-Kurdish activists for expressing their opinions, has
been criticized as an undemocratic limitation of freedom of speech by
the European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join.
Baykal,
who has long denounced political bans, suggested that parliament amend
the constitutional article that makes Erdogan ineligible for
parliamentary membership.
A
by-election could then be held to get Erdogan into parliament and open
the door for his premiership, he told Milliyet.
Baykal,
however, said the amendments should be part of a broader reform package,
which should also restrict the judicial immunity Turkish MPs enjoy and
shorten the parliament’s legislative term from five to four years.
The
AKP obtained 363 of the 550 seats in the parliament, falling just four
seats short of the majority required to change constitutional articles.
Baykal’s
CHP, which won 178 seats, was the only other party that made it to
parliament.
Independent
candidates claimed the remaining nine seats.
In
a rare show of solidarity, the two parties have pledged to cooperate
closely on foreign policy matters after the new parliament is formally
inaugurated next week.
In
statements to IslamOnline, sources close to the Justice and Development
Party (AKP), which secured a landside win in the parliamentary elections
held on November 4, suggested Saturday, November 9, AKP deputy chairman
Abdullah Gul as the most likely candidate for premiership.
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Gul
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AKP
leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan can not be Turkey’s new premier because
the Constitution stipulates heads of government to be members of
parliament.
The
sources said there were no other candidates bar Gul for the premiership
as long as Erdogan would not be able to head the government because of
the legal ban on practicing political rights, which is to expire by the
end of February 2003.
Gul
is the main architect of the AKP plans to assume the helm of power in
Turkey and is also a veteran economist with nine years experience in the
Jeddah-based Islamic Bank for Development.
He
had previously served as international relations coordinator in the
banned Virtue Party and the Welfare Party as well as minister of state
for Islamic affairs in the coalition government formed by former prime
minister Necmettin Erbakan between 1996 and 1997.
The
AKP decided to form the new government alone after garnering 363 seats
in the 550-seat parliament.
According
to the Turkish press, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer is waiting for the
parliamentary oath to officially ask the AKP to form the new government.
Meanwhile,
a Turkish newspaper reported on Saturday, November 9, that the AKP was
seeking amendments in the Turkish Constitution to allow Erdogan to head
the new government.
The
proposed amendment to article 109 of the Constitution would replace a
phase stipulating that the prime minister must be a member of the
parliament with another stipulating that he be a Turkish citizen, added
the paper.
It
also warned of the AKP’s intention to amend article 76 of the
Constitution which bans any citizen from running for parliament if ever
convicted with participation in ideologically-oriented acts
(demonstrations, speeches, etc.) even if legally pardoned.
The
projected amendment to this article would introduce a phrase on carrying
out or collaborating to terrorist acts instead. 
