ANKARA
The Justice and Development, or AK, Party nominated Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz candidate for the parliament speaker position, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced Friday.
Ismet Yilmaz, 53, is an MP from the central province of Sivas.
"As the AK Party, we agreed to offer Sivas Deputy Ismet Yilmaz as Turkish parliament speaker candidate," Davutoglu, also chairman of the AK Party, told a press briefing in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
Davutoglu said two names had stood out during the in-party consultations: Ismet Yilmaz and Education Minister Nabi Avci. He said he held separate talks with both.
"I presented my opinions on both of our colleagues, and then we decided on one name after at our central executive board this morning," said the prime minister.
Yilmaz also served as an undersecretary at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism before he entered the Turkish parliament as an AK Party MP in the 2011 general election.
The Republican People's Party (CHP) also announced Wednesday that its former leader Deniz Baykal -- who, as the oldest member of parliament, currently serves as interim speaker until the election next week, was also candidate.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) member of parliament and former presidential candidate in 2014, also submitted Wednesday his application to run for Turkey's parliament speaker.
Earlier in the week, pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) named Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, a former deputy chairman of the AK Party, as its candidate for parliament speaker.
Candidates have to submit their applications by June 28.
According to the Turkish constitution, the election of the speaker shall be conducted via secret ballot.
The election on June 30 requires a two-thirds majority among MPs. Should this majority not be reached after two attempts, a third requiring an absolute majority is be held on July 1.
If this cannot be obtained, a fourth vote shall be held on the same day in a run-off between the two candidates who received the highest number of votes in the third.
