ANKARA - Democratic Left Party (DSP) Eskisehir Deputy Tayfun Icli submitted a petition for his candidacy to the Parliament Speaker's office late on Sunday.
Thus the number of candidates running for President reached three shortly before the deadline to nominate candidates for Monday's Presidential election ends at 12:00 a.m. tonight.
FM Abdullah Gul had officially declared his candidacy for president from Justice & Development (AK) Party last Tuesday (August 14th) while the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had nominated Sabahattin Cakmakoglu, an MP from central Anatolian city of Kayseri, a candidate for president on August 17th, Friday.
First round of presidential election in Turkish parliament will be held on August 20th.
The parliament will convene at 3:00 p.m. on August 20th to elect the new president. If the president is not elected on August 20th, the second round of election is scheduled on August 24th. If the president is not elected in this round too, then parliamentarians will vote in the third round on August 28th. In case the candidates fail to collect enough votes in the third round, parliamentarians will cast votes for the fourth and the last time on September 1st.
The first and second rounds of voting requires 367 (two-thirds of 550 MPs) votes to elect the new president. But in the third round, a simple majority of 276 votes will be sufficient. If none of the candidates receive 276 in the this round, the first two candidates who get the highest number of votes in the third round will compete one last time on September 1st. Again, a simple majority of 276 votes will be required to elect the president in this last round. In case the parliament fails to elect the new president, it has to call for general elections.