Appeals court continues election amid runoff rounds

ANKARA

The Court of Appeals will reconvene for a critical election today to determine its new head after three rounds of voting failed to produce a clear winner.

The decision to defer the election came after yesterday's initial three rounds failed to produce a candidate with an absolute majority.

The urgency to elect a new head arose from the expiration of the four-year term of the current head, Mehmet Akarca, who assumed office on March 24, 2020. Five candidates, including Akarca, vied for the position, with 348 members of the top appeals court participating in the voting process.

In the third round of voting, Akarca secured 110 votes, while Adem Albayrak, head of the court's general legal assembly, and Muhsin Şentürk, head of a criminal chamber, both received 96 votes each.

Ömer Kerkez, head of a civil chamber within the high court, also garnered 96 votes. Ayhan Tuncal trailed behind with 10 votes.

Given the absence of a clear winner, the election proceeded to a fourth round, where the top three candidates from the third round – Akarca, Kerkez and Şentürk – will compete once again.

Should none of the candidates secure an absolute majority in the upcoming rounds, the election process will restart, with candidates required to reapply for candidacy.

Last week witnessed a changing of the guard in the Constitutional Court, with Kadir Özkaya assuming the role of the new head, succeeding Zühtü Arslan, whose term of office expired.

Özkaya's appointment was solidified following a general assembly vote, where he garnered nine out of 15 members' support, defeating his opponent Yusuf Şevki Hakyemez, who received six votes.

Born in 1963 in Mersin's Tarsus district, Özkaya embarked on his judicial career in 1993 as an investigative judge at the Council of State. He was later appointed as a member of the top court by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2014.