AKP’s candidate wins Speaker elections

TURKEY - In Brief 01 Jul 2015 by Atilla Yesilada

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I want to thank all our readers on behalf of myself, Dr Murat Ucer and that rascally Cosmic Strategist for honoring us with so many questions. Only an hour after the election of the AKP candidate and current Defense Minister Mr. Ismet Yilmaz to the post of the Speaker, our mail boxes were well-attended by your requests. Mr. Yilmaz won thanks to an instruction by MHP (nationalist) leader Mr. Devlet Bahceli to his caucus to cast invalid votes for the party’s candidate, former presidential runner-up, Mr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu in the final round. Indeed, 78 out of 80 MHP deputies are believed to have cast invalid votes, while 29 out of 80 HDP (pro-Kurdish rights) MPS may have cast blank votes, opening the way for an easy Yilmaz victory. The election once again demonstrates how bitter the rivalry between MHP and HDP is, but sends negative messages for the formation of a coalition. Bahceli’s fear of being mentioned in the sentence as HDP is so deep; that he missed a great chance for the entire opposition to win the coveted prize, which will in the coming days set the agenda for the Grand Assembly. The fact that AKP supported neither MHP nor the CHP candidate suggests that if negotiations had taken place place between the former and the latter until now, they certainly had not gotten anywhere. Since our last writing on the subject, both MHP and CHP leaders maintained their uncompromising attitude towards a coalition with AKP. In different words, both parties demand Erdogan take his hands off politics, while corruption allegations be investigated fully. The difference is that CHP has not shut the door as hard as MHP. According to its leader Kilicdaroglu, if AKP were to abide by...