ANKARA - Nearly three-quarters of Turks have no objections to a first lady wearing the Islamic headscarf, but want the president to be impartial, a public opinion poll published Tuesday showed.
The survey, conducted by the respected Konda company for the Milliyet newspaper, showed that 72.6 percent of those polled in this secular Muslim country would view it as "normal" if the wife of the president covers up.
The poll was conducted ahead of a decisive third-round of voting in parliament Tuesday to elect the next president. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist, is poised for a virtually certain victory.
Gul's presidential bid has sparked objections by secularist forces, who argue that a person with Islamist roots has no place in the top office of the state and are irritated by the fact that his wife wears the Islamic headscarf, which they see as a symbol of defiance of the secular system.
The Konda poll found that 19.8 percent would be "annoyed" by a first lady who covers up and 7.6 percent had no opinion on the issue.
The headscarf is banned in government offices and universities in Turkey.
Nearly 53 percent marked impartiality as the most important quality the president should have, followed by 28.4 percent who said the head of state must be loyal to the values of the Turkish Republic, secularism prominent among them.
The percentage of those who want a "devout" president was 12.6, according to the poll.
The survey was conducted among 2,734 people on August 18-19.
08/28/2007 07:03 GMT