Mustafa Şentop elected Turkish parliament speaker

Turkish Grand National Assembly’s new speaker was elected to replace resigning Binali Yıldırım, who is now running for Istanbul mayor in the upcoming March 31 local elections.

The ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) candidate Mustafa Şentop got 336 votes out of 600 seats in parliament in the third round of the election, qualifying to be the 29th speaker of the Turkish parliament.

Şentop’s main rival Engin Altay, deputy group chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), received 124 votes, Hurriyet Daily reported.

They were followed by the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) candidate Serpil Kemalbay Pekgözegü with 46 votes and the İYİ (Good) Party’s nominee İmam Hüseyin Filiz with 33 votes. Three votes were declared invalid.

Former parliament speaker Yıldırım announced his resignation late Feb. 18 to submit his candidacy for Istanbul mayor. He handed over the office to interim Parliament Speaker Celal Adan of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on February 19.