Turkey Elects New Parliamentary Speaker as Opposition Keeps Up Boycott

Turkey’s parliament elected a new speaker Monday as the opposition maintained a boycott over jailed lawmakers after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed calls for reconciliation, reports Lebanon’s The Daily Star.

Cemil Çiçek, a senior member of Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), was elected speaker in the third round of voting with support from 322 deputies in the AKP-dominated 550-seat parliament.

Members of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) were present in the general assembly but were unable to vote, having refused to take the oath since the new parliament started work last week.

Lawmakers from a Kurdish-backed bloc did not show up at all.

The two groups are protesting court rulings in the wake of June 12 polls that refused to free eight of their colleagues who were elected while in jail awaiting trial for alleged anti-government plots or links to Kurdish rebels.

The opposition parties argue that the jailed lawmakers are entitled to parliamentary immunity that would free them from jail because they are still on trial and have not been convicted. Erdogan has not signaled any intention to meet their demands.

Further fueling the controversy, the electoral board stripped one of them, a prominent Kurd, of his parliamentary seat and handed it to the AKP, adding to the party’s already solid majority.

Brushing aside appeals for legal changes to end the deadlock, Erdogan angrily slammed the boycott, saying the opposition itself was to blame for fielding candidates in prison.

“We reject the minority’s dominance over the majority … You will see, they will eat their words,” he said Sunday.

The AKP holds 327 parliamentary seats while the CHP has 135 and the Kurdish bloc 35.