All 311 MP's in Turkey's ruling AK Party nominated their leader and current Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as candidate for president on Tuesday, Turkish parliament speaker Cemil Cicek said. Turkish citizens will go to the polls on August 10 to vote for the twelfth president of the Turkish Republic.
The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate is 71 year-old former secretary general of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation), Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.
People's Democracy Party (HDP), announced their candidate on Monday, 41 year-old Selahattin Demirtas. Demirtas was elected to the Turkish parliament in 2007 elections but he was sentenced to 10 months in prison in 2010 for alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
A candidate needs more than 50 percent of the popular vote to be elected in the first round. If none of the three candidates receives the required percentage, a second round on August 24 will take place between the two candidates who received the most votes.
- Erdogan: "I'll be president to whole nation"
If elected president of Turkey on August 10, current Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pledged he will "be president of the whole nation of 77 million" during a speech he gave to mark the annoucement of his candidacy on Tuesday.
Speaking to an audience of four thousand in Ankara, Erdogan said, “We are not in politics for higher positions but for God and for the nation. We are in politics for the country, its flag and its independence.”
Erdogan is up against two candidates to become the twelfth president of the Turkish Republic, to be elected by popular vote for the first time.
Erdogan vowed to continue working towards a solution process between the Turkish government and the PKK. Turkey's constitution requires the president to be impartial and act above party lines.
“Everyone should know that if I will be elected on August 10, I will never be a president of certain segment of society or a party but a president of the whole nation of 77 million people,” said Erdogan.
