Turkey’s new parliament to hold first session on July 8

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s new parliament will hold its first plenary session on July 8 at 2 p.m. local time, three days after the Supreme Election Board (YSK) gives final official results for the June 24 general elections.

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Deniz Baykal — aged 80, the parliament’s oldest deputy — will chair the assembly as the acting speaker.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and lawmakers will be sworn in in parliament in the capital Ankara on July 8.

After the swearing-in, Baykal will hand over the speaker’s duties to Durmuş Yılmaz, the second-oldest member of parliament.

Yılmaz was elected from the Ankara province as a lawmaker from the İYİ (Good) Party.

According to unofficial results of the June 24 elections announced by the YSK, Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) won 295 seats in the 600-member Grand National Assembly.

The CHP came in second, claiming 146 seats, while the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) secured 67 seats, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which formed an election alliance with the AKP, 49 seats, and the İYİ Party 43 seats.

Erdoğan was elected as president June 24 with 52.6 percent of the votes, according to the results. CHP’s candidate Muharrem İnce came second with a 30. 64 share in the vote. HDP’s candidate Selahattin Demirtaş, who ran his election campaign from prison, secured 8.4 percent while İYİ Party’s candidate Meral Akşener garnered 7.3 percent of the vote.