Turkish ruling party pushes for reforms

Early polls on July 22

4 May 2007, 18:00 PM

Turkey's ruling party has formally submitted a package of major reforms to parliament, including a proposal to elect the president by a popular vote, following a political crisis that triggered mass protests.

Officials from the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) said Friday that the raft of reforms was backed by a small opposition party, the Motherland Party, which has long advocated the popular vote.

The reform draft was submitted late Thursday and followed a crisis sparked by parliament's failure a week ago to elect a president, amid widespread secular opposition to the sole candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist.

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The fallout forced Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to bow to opposition calls for early general elections. Parliament Thursday approved bringing the polls forward to July 22 from November.

AKP officials say they would like to rush the reform package through parliament, so that the first-round of a popular presidential vote could be held simultaneously with the legislative elections.