ANKARA
A bid to have Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan removed from office while he stands for the presidency has been rejected by the Supreme Board of Election.
Opposition parties had wanted Erdogan removed from the premiership while he is campaigning to be voted Turkey’s first directly elected president on August 10.
The board rejected fifteen objections to Erdogan remaining in office during the campaign. Demands that he resign as chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party were also rejected.
Erdogan announced his candidacy earlier this month.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the former head of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, is the joint candidate of two opposition parties, the Republican People’s Party and the Nationalist Movement Party
Selahattin Demirtas has been nominated by the left-wing Peoples' Democracy Party.
If none of the candidates takes more than 50 per cent of the vote, a second round will take place on August 24.
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