The Strong Turkey Party (GTP) supported Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who heads the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK), in his urge for early legislative elections to be held June 24 and for allowing people to vote at a younger age.
The Constitutional Court had dismissed the first round of the presidential vote in parliament Tuesday, in which foreign minister and Erdogan ally Abdullah Gul was the only candidate, because too few deputies (370, six less than required) of the AK-dominated legislature turned up.
"We have a right to call our lawmakers until their phones break down. Thus we will attain our goal," said Tuna Beklevic, the GTP leader, referring to the current law that gives people over 30 the right to vote. His party wants the age limit to be lowered to 25.
Erdogan has avoided talking about his own presidential ambitions in the wake of protests earlier this month across the country against what is portrayed by the powerful pro-secular military, and widely seen by the public, as a gradual slide toward Islamism, contrary to the legacy of Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's modern "founding father" and the symbol of its secular identity.
