ANKARA, August 28 (RIA Novosti) - Abdullah Gul, Turkey's foreign minister and a candidate from the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development (AK) Party, was elected president Tuesday in a third round of voting in parliament.
Gul, 56, received 339 votes, against the required minimum of 276 votes, Parliamentary Speaker Koksal Toptan said. The foreign minister's AK Party has 341 seats out of 550 in the legislature.
In the first two rounds of voting held on August 20 and 24, Gul failed to win a constitutional majority of 367 votes, pushing the election to a third round.
In the predominantly Muslim country, which has a secular Constitution, the secular elite and the military suspect Gul of an Islamist agenda, which they have warned could lead to an Islamic takeover of the government.
