Ruling AKP nominates Şentop for another term as parliament speaker

ANKARA

Sitting Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop will be presented as a candidate for another term in parliament, a senior ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) official has said, informing that the election process is planned to be accomplished on July 2.

“We have observed that a good majority of our lawmakers want Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop to be nominated as our party’s candidate to the office of the parliament speaker,” AKP deputy parliamentary group leader Naci Bostancı told reporters on June 19.

Bostancı recalled that the mandate of Şentop ends in late June and parliament needs to elect the parliament speaker for the three-year mandate.

The election process will begin on July 2, he informed, expressing his hope that it will be completed on the same day. Bostancı said parliament would go to recess after the completion of the elections on July 2.

Şentop is believed to win the elections in the third round of the polls with the majority votes of the AKP and its ally the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

The AKP’s announcement came just a day after former Parliament Speaker Binali Yıldırım said he won’t run for parliament speaker, ending speculations over his career plans.

Yıldırım served as parliament speaker between mid-2018 to early 2019 before being declared as the AKP’s candidate for Istanbul in the March local polls. He did not take on an official position after he lost the polls to the opposition’s candidate, Ekrem İmamoğlu.

Along with the speaker, his deputies and the heads of relevant panels will also be selected.