Parliament elects AKP’s Kahraman as its new speaker

ANKARA

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İsmail Kahraman, the Istanbul deputy from the ranks of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), has been elected as the new parliament speaker in the third round of the voting on Nov 22. 

A veteran conservative politician, Kahraman served as minister of culture in the mid-1990s under Necmettin Erbakan’s governments, which were later shut down by the Constitutional Court. Kahraman is known as one of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s closest associates. After a break of 12 years, he returned to the active politics through the Nov. 1 elections. 

The first two rounds of voting failed to elect the speaker as none of four contenders could garner the 367 required votes. In the third round, however, when only 276 votes is needed, Kahraman won thanks to support he received from the AKP (which holds 317 parliamentary seats) and was elected as parliament speaker.

Other candidates included Ayşe Gülsün Bilgehan, the Ankara deputy of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Yusuf Halaçoğlu, the Kayseri deputy of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat, the Istanbul deputy of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).