Turkey's Parliament on Thursday approved July 22 as the date for early general elections, which were called to resolve a government crisis over sharply rising tension between the pro-secular military and the Islamic-rooted government. Parliament approved the date unanimously _ with all 458 votes cast in favor _ despite initial objections from the secular opposition, which argued the elections would be held at a time when many vacationing Turks would be away and unable to vote. Elections originally had been scheduled for November, according to AP. The government crisis began last week when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan nominated Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a close ally from his Islamic-based Justice and Development Party, as president. At the heart of the conflict is a fear that the ruling party would misuse its control of both Parliament and the presidency to erode the secular foundation of modern Turkey. With Erdogan's strong majority in Parliament, Gul had looked sure to win, but the secularist opposition boycotted the Parliament vote and took the issue to the Constitutional Court, which said there had been no quorum and annulled the first round of voting. The powerful military, which has overthrown governments in the past, warned last week against the growing profile of Islam and, in a statement seen as a warning that it might intervene, reake it harder for a pro-Kurdish party to field independent candidates in elections. The second and final round of voting will be held on Sunday. Currently, a party needs 10 percent of the vote to win seats in Parliament. The Kurdish group, the Democratic Society Party, had planned to circumvent that rule by making its candidates stand as independents, who would then form a party with their individual seats once they got into Parliament. The move comes despite the European Union's call on Turkey to reduce the threshold and ensure wider representation in Parliament. Turkey's electoral board, which oversees elections, had recommended July 22, which was also approved by a parliamentary committee late Wednesday. Erdogan's party will hold a new presidential vote on Sunday. But analysts said it would again be hard for the ruling party to get enough votes to elect Gul. Erdogan's party also submitted to Parliament proposals for constitutional amendments to allow the president to be elected by popular vote, rather than by the Parliament. The proposals, which do not have the main opposition party's backing, would also reduce the presidential term from the current seven years, to five, and allow the president to stand for re-election for a second term. Another proposal was to hold general elections every four years instead of five. -- SPA
