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| Turkey PM to ask for early poll | Turkey PM to ask for early poll |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will ask parliament to approve an early general election. | Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will ask parliament to approve an early general election. |
| He also said he would ask for a change in the constitution to allow the president to be chosen by the people. | He also said he would ask for a change in the constitution to allow the president to be chosen by the people. |
| Mr Erdogan was speaking after the country's constitutional court annulled last Friday's parliamentary vote to elect a new president. | Mr Erdogan was speaking after the country's constitutional court annulled last Friday's parliamentary vote to elect a new president. |
| Secularist opposition parties had challenged the vote in court to prevent the foreign minister from winning. | Secularist opposition parties had challenged the vote in court to prevent the foreign minister from winning. |
| The parties accuse Abdullah Gul of having a hidden Islamist agenda and say his election would threaten Turkey's secular tradition. | The parties accuse Abdullah Gul of having a hidden Islamist agenda and say his election would threaten Turkey's secular tradition. |
| Mr Erdogan, the leader of the AK party, which has Islamist roots and had put forward Mr Gul as its candidate, said he would apply for new polls on Wednesday and they could be held as soon as 24 June. | Mr Erdogan, the leader of the AK party, which has Islamist roots and had put forward Mr Gul as its candidate, said he would apply for new polls on Wednesday and they could be held as soon as 24 June. |
| The polls are currently scheduled for 4 November. | |
| Army role | |
| Mr Erdogan announced a package of reform proposals that included reducing the term of parliament from five years to four. | |
| The court ruled there was not a quorum for Friday's voteHe was speaking after the constitutional court annulled last Friday's vote in which Mr Gul failed to win the required majority amid a boycott by the opposition. | |
| The constitutional court backed the opposition's argument that a quorum of two-thirds of the 550 lawmakers was not present. | |
| A total of 361 lawmakers voted - 357 for Mr Gul - but 367 were needed to make a quorum. | |
| Mr Gul and Mr Erdogan deny there is any hidden Islamist agenda. | |
| But the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul says the army had made it clear it would not tolerate Mr Gul as president. | |
| It warned it would defend the separation of state and religion, the legacy of the state's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. | |
| Our correspondent says the court is officially independent but had been under immense pressure to reach precisely the verdict it did. It is one that is likely to divide Turkey further, she says. | |
| On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul in support of secularism. |