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450 members of theGrand National Assembly 226 votes needed to win | ||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 63.33% | |||||||||||||||
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The1989 Turkish presidential election refers the election to choose the country's eighth president, to succeedKenan Evren. The candidate of the governingMotherland Party (ANAP) was its leader and Prime MinisterTurgut Özal. In the first and second rounds, the ruling party ANAP was unsuccessful in electing its candidate. Finally, in the third round, Turgut Özal was elected as the eighth President of Turkey.[1] He was the second civil president in Turkish history.
The parliamentary opposition, formed by theTrue Path Party (DYP) and theSocial Democratic People's Party (SHP) claimed that the loss of popular support for ANAP in theMarch 1989 local elections did not give the party the democratic legitimacy to elect one of its politicians as President. Since ANAP commanded a parliamentary majority, its candidate was effectively certain to win the third round, where only asimple majority of the vote is required to win. The opposition thus boycotted the election.Fethi Çelikbaş, an ANAPMember of Parliament who stood against Özal, was the only other candidate. There were eight blank votes in the third round, which was held on October 31.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turgut Özal | Motherland Party | 263 | 94.95 | |
| Fethi Çelikbaş | Motherland Party | 14 | 5.05 | |
| Total | 277 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 277 | 97.19 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 8 | 2.81 | ||
| Total votes | 285 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 450 | 63.33 | ||
