Turkish president vetoes EU-backed ombudsman law

ANKARA, July 1 (Reuters) Turkey's president has vetoed a European Union-backed law creating the post of ombudsman, his office said today.

The EU, which Turkey hopes to join, believes the ombudsman will boost the fight against corruption, increase transparency and allow better control of military spending.

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who often wields his veto against laws introduced by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said the post contravened Turkey's constitution by extending to parliament powers it had no right to exercise.

Under the new law, the ombudsman would be linked to parliament.

Sezer, a former head of the constitutional court, asked parliament to revise the law.

Parliament, where the AKP has a big majority, went into summer recess yesterday and is unlikely now to reconsider the bill until the autumn.

It could override Sezer's veto by approving the law a second time unchanged, though the president could then appeal to the constitutional court over the issue. Its word would be final.

Sezer, a staunch secularist, has often clashed with the AKP, a centre-right party with Islamist roots.

He is due to retire next May and secularists are nervous that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan or another senior AKP figure may then seek the top job. Parliament elects the president for a seven-year period.

Reuters SHB DS1535