AK Party wants Erdogan to run for presidency: Deputy PM

ANKARA

Ongoing discussions within the governing AK Party indicate it wants Recep Tayyip Erdogan to become a candidate in Turkey's presidential elections in August, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc has said.

Arinc's comments on Monday came during an interview with a private TV channel in which he discussed the country's political agenda, a speech by the President of the Constitutional Court, Hasim Kilic, and a solution process for the Kurdish issue.

He said Prime Minister Erdogan would currently easily win the elections as opposition party leaders did not have popular support.

Arinc added that the consultations would continue under a final meeting between Erdogan's and President Abdullah Gul in mid-May, when the AK Party's presidential candidate will be determined.

The constitution was amended in 2007 for the president to be elected by the public, but the president's powers - as a part of the executive body of the state - have not yet been amended. August elections will be the first presidential elections in Turkey.

The matter has triggered debate in the country that a president elected by the public should have more power than a president elected by parliament.

Arinc said that, in the case of a conflict of authority between the elected president and the elected government, the constitution should be referred for settlement.

Referring to Hasim Kilic's speech criticizing the government for trying to take control of the judiciary and accusing the judiciary of being infiltrated by the "parallel state", Arinc said it was a "road accident" and added he would not accept Kilic - as an apolitical member of the Court - making such comments.

He said: "While as the head of the constitutional court he has the right to talk about problems within the country - in a judicial sense - his speech was quite political and it did not fit well with his post.

"He should not have targeted the elected government and prime minister directly."

Arinc added that he did not believe claims that Kilic intended to run for the presidency, and that Kilic's comments were not binding on the Court.

Egyptian courts' ruling for death penalty to 683 people was criticized by Arinc earlier on Monday.

Arinc called the decision shameful not only on the Egyptian government but also the world powers who have remained silent on the decision. He stated that he hopes that the court will take all these death penalty decisions back and he urged the U.S and EU to stand against the decisions.

The Egyptian court on Monday sentenced 37 people from anti-coup groups to death on charges of committing acts of violence in the Upper Egyptian province of Minya last August after security forces violently dispersed two anti-coup sit-ins in Cairo and Giza, killing hundreds of protesters in the process.

491 others were sentenced to life in prison for acts of violence while 683 coup protesters including Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie were referred to the country's mufti for possible death sentences after the ruling found them guilty of attacking a local police station in Minya and endangering public peace, judicial sources said.

The verdicts came after the court had consulted the grand mufti, Egypt's top religious official, for a non-binding procedural review. However, the court rulings can be appealed, according to judicial sources.

The court set June 21 to issue its verdicts against the 683 defendants.

englishnews@aa.com.tr