Gül elected 11th president of Turkey

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ISTANBUL:    It's official (hot off Turkish TV): Abdullah Gül -- until a few moments ago, the foreign minister of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) -- has been elected as the 11th president of the Republic of Turkey. Widely expected to win the just finished third round of the presidential election, which kicked off today at 15:00 local time (12:00 GMT), Gül merely needed a simple majority in Parliament to secure the country's top post. Unlike the first two rounds where a minimum of 367 votes from parliamentary deputies was needed -- but the arithmetic make-up of Parliament meant that was impossible for a Gül win -- today's third round vote only required 276 to take the AK Party candidate into the presidential home, Çankaya Palace.

The final count read as follows:  Abdullah Gül, 339; Sabahhattin Çakmakoğlu of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), 70; Hüseyin Tayfun İçli of the Democratic Left Party (DSP), 13. A total of 448 votes were placed in the secret ballot by deputies present in Parliament. This boils down to 26 abstentions from voting for any of the above candidates. The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) boycotted the normally 550-member assembly, as they did in the previous annulled presidential election back in April, in protest at Gül's roots in political Islam.

Abdullah Gül, not present in Parliament as the results were read to deafening applause, will arrive back in the parliamentary assembly at 18:00 hours local time (15.00 GMT) to be sworn in as the 11th president of Turkey. There is still speculation on whether his wife, Hayrunnisa Gül -- who wears a headscarf, one of the main objections to Gül's presidency -- will be present at the ceremony. Covered women are banned from all state institutions in the secular republic, although she is allowed to stand on the parliamentary balcony.

One of the first tasks of the new president will be to approve AK Party Prime Minister Erdoğan's new Cabinet, which outgoing President Ahmet Necdet Sezer had refused to do when first submitted the list some weeks ago.

Against the background of a military statement from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) posting a statement on their Web site yesterday, on the eve of the presidential election, warning of "centers of evil" threatening the secular regime, the real first test of the new political landscape will take place on Thursday, Aug. 30. The Victory Day military ceremony traditionally involves an invitation from the Chief of General Staff, Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt, to the president and his wife. Will the republic see for the first time in its 84-year-old history a headscarfed Mrs. President at the significantly secular ceremony?

STOP PRESS:    18:30 Local time (15:00 GMT) Hayrunnisa Gül, the headscarfed wife of the new president did not attend her 56-year-old husband's inauguration, although Gül's son and nephew were present in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) as the 11th president gave his first public address. Meanwhile, in President Gül's hometown of Kayseri, the people took to the streets to celebrate the success of their local son, sometimes referred to as the "Turkish George Clooney."

CNN Türk have also just reported that the new Mrs. President has said that she won't be attending the Victory Day ceremony on Thursday. August 30 in the Turkish calendar is a national holiday commemorating the final battle in 1922 of the Turkish War of Indepence. The war, which saw Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lead a successful resistance against the Allied forces occupying Anatolia following Word War I, led to the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923.