Turkey: Parliament speaker nominated for 2nd term

ANKARA Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party on Friday nominated Mustafa Sentop for a second term as parliament speaker. Speaking to reporters in parliament, Naci Bostanci, the party's parliamentary group head, said that after talks with ruling party lawmakers, “most of our colleagues said that they wanted to see Mustafa Sentop run again." Sentop’s term started in February 2019 and will end on July 12. He is expected to be re-elected on July 7. Sentop later told reporters his candidacy had “became definite." Turkey's parliament is set to elect a new speaker on July 7 after all the candidates file their declaration of intent by July 6 at the latest. Lawmakers will elect the new speaker through a secret ballot of up to four rounds on a single day. In the first two rounds, the candidates will seek a supermajority of 400 lawmakers in the 600-seat parliament. In the third and fourth rounds, if necessary, a simple majority of 301 lawmakers will be enough to elect a new speaker. The opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is expected to back Sentop. The AK Party holds 291 seats in parliament, while the MHP has 36.