The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party has started to collect the necessary MP signatures to nominate its presidential candidate for Turkey's upcoming presidential elections on August 10.
A presidential candidate needs 20 MPs to support his candidacy before the candidate can officially stand for the election scheduled for August 10.
"We will also have a presidential nominee for whom we have started to collect the MPs' signatures," Mahir Unal, AK Party's deputy group chairman, told Anadolu Agency.
PM Erdogan on Tuesday at his party's parliamentary group meeting said that the party will declare their nominee on July 1 at 11.30.
The vote will be the first time that Turkey's president is elected by direct popular vote.
A candidate needs more than 50 percent of the popular vote to be elected in the first round. If none of the three expected candidates receives the required percentage, a second round on August 24 will take place between the two candidates who received the most votes.
www.aa.com.tr/en
