Turkey's Gul fails to win presidency in first vote

ANKARA, Aug 20 (Reuters) Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul won most votes in the first round of a presidential election in Turkey toay, deputies told Reuters, but did not secure the two-thirds majority needed in parliament for an outright win.

Turkey's military and secular elite blocked his first bid to become head of state in April because of his Islamist past, triggering a parliamentary election in July which was intended to defuse the crisis over the presidency.

Gul's centre-right AK Party has been strengthened by its convincing election win but is still short of the two-thirds majority in parliament needed for him to be elected president in the first or second round of voting.

He is expected finally to defeat his two rivals only in a third round of voting on August. 28, when he would need just a simple majority to win.

The presidency has traditionally been held by the secular elite and a former Islamist has never been elected president.

Victory for Gul, 56, would complete the AK Party's capture of all key posts in Turkey's political hierarchy.

Gul secured 341 votes in the 550-seat chamber and a quorum of at least 367 parliamentarians, enough to validate the vote.

The first vote in April was derailed by a court ruling that two-thirds of parliament had to be present to make the process valid -- impossible amid an opposition boycott. This time enough parties have pledged to participate.

The army, which undermined the April vote when it threatened to intervene in the election process, has signalled that it will not get involved again. As recently as 1997 the army ousted a government in which Gul served because it was seen as Islamist.

Turkey's financial markets had been troubled by the dispute that derailed Gul's first election bid, but are now more focused on volatility in global markets because Gul's eventual victory is widely regarded as a foregone conclusion.

Turkey's lira came off earlier highs to trade at 1.3510 against the dollar, still firmer on the day.

STATE AND RELIGION The presidential campaign has again brought to the surface the great divide among Turks, who are predominantly Muslim, over the role of religion at a time of rapid economic and social change.

Gul says he backs secularism, but opposition from the secularist elite remains fierce as they accuse the AK Party of seeking to break down the division between state and religion.

''If I am elected president, I will be careful with maintaining the balances within the country's administrations,'' Gul told reporters before the vote.

His wife wears the Muslim headscarf, seen by secularists as a provocative symbol of religion. It has become an unwritten rule that headscarves are not worn in the presidential palace.

Having Gul as commander-in-chief would irritate a military establishment that sees itself as the ultimate guardian of the secular state and has removed four governments in 50 years.

The foreign minister is a respected diplomat who oversaw the launch of Turkey's European Union accession talks and was briefly prime minister when the AK Party came to power in 2002.

A Gul presidency would make the next government's job easier as it would no longer have to get laws and appointments past President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who frequently vetoed their bills.

REUTERS SR RK2025