Following the Supreme Election Board's (YSK) announcement of the final election results of the June 7 general elections on Thursday, the 25th term of Parliament will convene on Tuesday for newly elected deputies to make their oaths and officially begin their duties.
The oath taking ceremony on Tuesday is expected to take nearly 10 hours as 550 deputies take their oaths. Though 77-year-old former Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Deniz Baykal will act as speaker of Parliament as he is the oldest member of the chamber, diverse figures are being discussed as candidates for the next permanent Parliament speaker. With the newly elected deputies taking their oaths in Parliament on Tuesday, the process for electing the new Parliament speaker will also begin. The candidates for Parliament speaker will be announced in the first five days after the deputies take their oaths, which will be followed by the first round of balloting expected to take place on June 28. In the case of the balloting going to the last round, the official result for the announcement of the new Parliament speaker is expected to be on July 2.As Baykal is being discussed to be the permanent speaker due to his former position as CHP chairman, whether his stance as the Parliament speaker would be neutral or not is also being discussed. In addition to Baykal, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Deputy Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, who was the joint presidential candidate of the CHP and MHP in last year's election, is also among the possible candidates. Education Minister Nabi Avcı and Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş from the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) are expected to be announced as candidates as well. Though former speaker of Parliament Ayşenur Bahçekapılı has been discussed as a possible candidate, her stance toward opposition parties during talks regarding the new Domestic Security Reform Package lowers her chances. Additionally to Bahçekapılı, former Interior Minister Meral Akşener and Parliamentary Justice Commission head Ahmet İyimaya are among the possibilities.
The election process for Parliament speaker is viewed as a practice run for a possible coalition government. Four rounds of secret balloting are used for the election of the Parliament speaker. A quorum of two out of three deputies, which is 367, is required for the first two rounds. If the first two rounds do not result in a winner, a third round will be held and a simple majority number of 276 is needed to be elected speaker. The fourth round will be with the two candidates who received the most votes in the earlier round, and a simple majority of votes will be required. The vice speaker positions are divided among the political parties, starting with the party with the highest share of seats provided that two of the positions are designated to the party with an absolute majority.
Once the deputies take their oaths and the Parliament speaker is elected, the official negotiations to form the new government will begin. While Turkey's political history gives little hope for success of the possible coalition government, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Sunday reiterated that the AK Party is open to negotiations to form a coalition government with other political parties. In this regard, the MHP, which narrowed down the options of a government as it did not lean toward either a coalition involving the CHP, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) or external support from the party to form a minority government, is purportedly softening its stance toward the AK Party with MHP Group Deputy Chairman Yusuf Halaçoğlu saying last Thursday: "If the AK Party wants to form a coalition with us, of course we will negotiate with them."
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