ANKARA - Turkey`s ruling party failed to get its presidential candidate through a first round of parliamentary voting on Friday after an opposition boycott robbed it of the required two-thirds majority.
The opposition boycott left the ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) casting all its 352 votes in favour of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, the sole candidate to become Turkey`s next president.
However, despite picking up five additional votes from a handful of other deputies, it failed to garner the required two-third majority in the first round of voting in the 550-seat assembly.
A second round, in which the winner still needs a two-thirds majority, is scheduled for Tuesday.
The AKP however is virtually certain to elect Gul in the third round on May 9, when an absolute majority of 276 suffices.
It is not certain, however, whether the vote will proceed as scheduled because the main opposition party, which led the boycott, plans to ask the Constitutional Court to annul the first-round vote on a technicality related to quorum rules and possibly force early general elections.
04/27/2007 15:13 GMT