Erdogan: We Have Election Time Table For Siirt

ANKARA - Justice and Development Party (AK Party) leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Higher Election Board (YSK) announced timetable regarded with renewal of elections that would take place in southeastern Siirt province and added, ''we are making our all preliminary studies on this as election coordination center.''
Erdogan evaluated the election which will be held in Siirt and answered questions in AK Party headquarters.
Recalling that YSK announced election date as February 9, Erdogan said that the election which would be held according to that calendar would not be a by-election, but it would be renewed.
Stating that to this end political parties would attend the election with current lists without any change, Erdogan said, ''YSK will demand from parties to give names for those who are excluded from deputy candidacy due to resignation or any reasons on January 20, if there are deficiencies in the list of candidates. If a person is excluded from the list due to resignation, this person should inform YSK about his/her resignation. Political party should nominate others if person or persons were excluded from deputy candidacy. Determination of our party's candidate list is out of question now. Because there is no gap in our list.''
Erdogan said, ''of course, I can understand your curiosity about the issue, but you should be patient. We hope that election will not take place in difficult conditions. We hope that election will be held peacefully, so deficiency in number of deputies in the parliament will be removed.''
When asked whether or not AK Party took on the agenda the issue of participation in the election from another province, Erdogan said, ''this is not on the agenda now. We have an election time-table for Siirt. AK Party is making our all preliminary studies on this calendar as election coordination center.''
When asked, ''resignation of Mervan Gul who was elected as a Siirt deputy from AK Party on November 3 elections but whose deputyship was stripped off later is now on the agenda. She also explained her resignation. Did you decide to become a deputy candidate from Siirt?'' Erdogan said, ''explaining resignation and applying officially for resignation are different things. Making statement on the issue is not true before the issue became official. Leader of ruling party in Turkey should not make a statement on that issue before it became official.''
Erdogan did not answer the question whether or not a possible operation against Iraq would cause postponement of election in Siirt.