ANKARA
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has announced the name of Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat as its candidate for parliament speaker.
"We took opinions and suggestions from our party members during our party meeting and decided to send Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat as our candidate for parliament speaker," HDP co-leader Selahattin Demirtas told journalists before a meeting of his party’s top decision-making body Monday.
Firat was elected HDP’s Member of Parliament from Turkey’s southern Mersin province and in the past was vice president of the Justice and Development (AK) Party.
According to the official June 7 election results, HDP won 80 seats in the Turkish parliament.
The parliament's first plenary session is expected on June 23 during which the oath-taking ceremony of the newly-elected members will take place. After the swearing in ceremony, parliament members will elect the speaker.
The Republican People's Party's (CHP) Deniz Baykal -- as the oldest oldest parliament member at 76 -- will preside over the assembly as acting speaker until another speaker is elected to the parliament.
According to the Turkish constitution, the election of the speaker shall be conducted via secret ballot. The first two ballots require a two-thirds majority of the total number of members. In the third, the absolute majority is needed.
If this cannot be obtained, a fourth ballot shall be held in a run-off between the two candidates who have received the highest number of votes in the third ballot.
The election of the speaker shall be completed within five days after June 28.
