Ex-Islamist Gul elected Turkey's president
The Turkish parliament yesterday elected Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as president, making him the secular republic's first head of state with an Islamist past.
Gul, who is deeply mistrusted by the secular establishment, won 339 votes in the 550-member parliament, well above the simple majority of 276 votes required in the decisive third round ballot.
The governing Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) had failed to get Gul elected in the first two rounds of voting held last week, with its 340 seats falling short of the required two-thirds majority.
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