Türkiye’s Parliament, formally known as the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM), has elected Numan Kurtulmuş, deputy chairperson of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), as its 30th speaker.
All members of Parliament cast their secret votes in three sessions on Wednesday and Kurtulmuş received 317 votes in the first round, short of the majority required for an outright win, leading to a second round. He received 321 votes in the third round of voting.
Lawmakers voted again in the second round seeking two-thirds of the parliamentary seats.
As the joint candidate of the AK Party and its ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Kurtulmuş beat six other candidates to the top.
His rivals included Tekin Bingöl, nominated by the Republican People's Party (CHP), Tülay Hatimoğulları, nominated by Green Left Party (YSP), Cihan Paçacı from the Good Party (IP), Mustafa Yeneroğlu from the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), Serap Yazıcı Özbudun from the Future Party (GP) and Can Atalay from the Turkish Labor Party (TIP).
Kurtulmuş will succeed Mustafa Şentop, an AK Party lawmaker elected in 2019. The parliamentary speaker is elected twice every legislative period for two-year and three-year tenures.
Türkiye went to polls for the parliamentary and presidential vote on May 14, as well as a historic runoff on May 28. Erdoğan has remained Türkiye’s 12th ruling president and become the 13th in the line of elected leaders. The people have directly elected the Turkish president since the constitutional amendment was made in 2007.
As the oldest member of Parliament, AK Party ally Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli temporarily replaced Şentop after the elections.
Kurtulmuş, a renowned academic, made his foray into politics in 1998 and joined the AK Party in 2012. He served as deputy prime minister and minister of culture and tourism in the past AK Party governments before he was appointed the party’s deputy chair in 2018.
Last Friday, 600 lawmakers elected or reelected to Parliament were sworn in.
The AK Party won 268 seats, the most in Parliament, in May 14 polls, as it entered its third decade in power with the latest victory. In addition to the AK Party, its People’s Alliance partners MHP won 50 seats, and the New Welfare Party (YRP) won five, securing a combined majority of 323 seats out of the total in Parliament.
With 169 deputies, the CHP, along with its coalition partner, the IP, secured a total of 212 seats in Parliament, representing the main opposition Nation’s Alliance. The smaller partners of the CHP-led six-party opposition coalition got almost 40 lawmakers by entering the parliamentary elections under CHP lists.
The Labor and Freedom Alliance won Parliament’s remaining 65 seats, comprised of the YSP with 61 seats and TIP with four.
Of the 36 political parties that competed for parliamentary seats, a total of 15 will be making up Parliament in its new term in five separate groups, but most of their leaders are to be absent from the assembly after failing to be elected as lawmakers.
Before Kurtulmuş was named, new Cabinet members too, took their oaths of office in Parliament.
The 18-member Cabinet, including Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz and spymaster-turned Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, held its first meeting on Tuesday under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s chairpersonship.
Together with the Cabinet, Erdoğan vowed to serve all of Türkiye and its 85 million people and assured they would prioritize education, in addition to economic stability, security and constitutional change.
Erdoğan, who triumphed in the runoff on May 28, entered his third decade with the AK Party at the helm of Türkiye, either as prime minister or president.
Among the most pressing issues awaiting him and his new Cabinet is inflation, which affects daily life, from food prices to rent. The president has promised to reduce inflation to single digits and the latest figures, down under 40% for the first time in 16 months, appear promising.
Another item on the Cabinet’s agenda is reconstruction in earthquake-hit provinces in Türkiye’s southeast. Dubbed the “disaster of the century,” two earthquakes claimed more than 50,000 lives in several provinces, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.
Though the government was criticized for a “slow response” by the opposition, Erdoğan emerged victorious in almost all disaster-hit provinces in the elections, assuring his government would zero in on rebuilding areas devastated by the earthquake and reconstructing the region where more than 300,000 buildings were damaged.
The state of Syrian refugees, their safe and swift return, as well as counterterrorism efforts, particularly operations against the terrorist group PKK, will be urgent topics Erdoğan and his Cabinet will be tackling.
