Turskish constitutional Court declares friday's presidential elections invalid

[Asmodean]

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey's highest court on Tuesday annulled a presidential vote that had been dominated by concerns about the rising profile of political Islam, opening the way for possible early general elections.

The ruling was issued after the opposition boycotted the vote on Friday, and after huge protests by hundreds of thousands of pro-secular Turks against the Islamic-rooted government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The decision represents a setback for the government, which had hoped to strengthen its authority with the election of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to the presidency.

Governing party figures have said they were considering early general elections to defuse tensions with the military-backed secular establishment.

Media reports said the government planned an announcement later Tuesday.

"We've canceled the first round" of the Parliament's presidential voting. "Whether the Parliament will continue the vote or not, we can't know," court spokesman Hasim Kilic said.

In its ruling, the court accepted the leading opposition party's argument that the vote was invalid because a quorum of two-thirds of Turkey 550 legislators was not present.

"Our court ruled that a quorum of 367 was necessary," Kilic said.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/05/01/turkey.vote.ap/index.html

Will be interesting to see what the army will do. What a mess....


Asmodean

[Spiffor]

Interesting. Maybe now there will be anticipated general elections. It sure would clarify the political situation.

[VetLegion]

That's a huge number of legislators Turkey has. I wonder how wieldy (<--is that a word?) is that. We have 150.

[Ecthy]

Asmodean

Spiff, I agree and that's also what is considered the most likely by the German newspaper Die Zeit. What annoys a bit is the fact that the constitutional court always had the power to do so. The noisemaking of the military was absolutely useless and now people might be under the impression it was necessary to save the country.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by VetLegion
That's a huge number of legislators Turkey has. I wonder how wieldy (<--is that a word?) is that. We have 150.

We have more than Turkey, and it's acceptably wieldy. Anyway, the government has all power, and the parliament just follows.

[Ecthy]

Germany has 600 but we also have a larger population. Why a country like France with a smaller population would still have more people in the parliament is beyond me.

Big parliaments are an abomination. China has thousands of them.

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by Spiffor
We have more than Turkey, and it's acceptably wieldy. Anyway, the government has all power, and the parliament just follows.

Are oyu talking about France?

[Ecthy]

Interpreation of Spiegel Online as to the meaning of this for Erdogan's attempt at Islamization:

"It's now re-elections rather than a power struggle between islamists and laicists. Erdogan can now pull back without losing face."

[Provost Harrison]

We have 650-odd members of parliament in the UK...

[LordShiva]

We have ~800.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Are oyu talking about France?

Yeah, the government initiates a gigantic part of our legislation (often in order to comply with EU legislation).

The Parliament's main role is to elect the government. Its role as law-maker has considerably dropped 50 years ago, and never bounced back seriously. Currently, it has a serious role on the state's Budget (though it can't initiate the budget, and isn't free to amend it as it wants), and its role as a controller of the government is increasing. But as a creator of laws? Forget it, that's the government's job.

[Ecthy]

Silly...

The National People's Congress of the PRC has 3,000-odd seats.

[Provost Harrison]

So a combined age of about 300 000?

[Last Conformist]

Once you get into the millions of citizens, I don't see why there should be a relation between population size and the number of legislators.

[Barnabas]

Originally posted by LordShiva
We have ~800.

India should have a soccer stadium filled with deputies