Reports say a new legal case could come to ban Turkish PM Erdogan

In one scenario, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his governing party may face a new attempt to ban them from politics, Vatan daily reported on its website, citing a news report in the pro-government Taraf daily. �

According to the report, the country’s chief prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya will file a new case against the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) and would demand the closure of the party or banning Erdogan from politcs. Yalcinkaya is expected to take such step after the reasoning of the Constitutional Court's ruling is made public.

Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled against the demands to close the governing party in its critical ruling on July 30. However the court ruled with an overwhelming majority that the AKP had become focal point of anti-secular activities and issued a “serious warning”.

The reasoning would shed a light on which grounds the court had ruled that the party is harming secularism, but not to the extent it deserved to be closed.

With the details of the ruling in the closure case, Yalcinkaya would seek to have the officials, whose remarks and acts deemed as anti-secular, expelled from the party in his new legal attempt.

In the case Yalcinkaya makes such an attempt, Erdogan's position will be in question as he is likely to be among the names that a political ban is demanded, Vatan added.

AKP FRONT
On the AKP front, an Islamist columnist, who has close ties with the party, suggested Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul might swap their posts in the future.

"I suppose Gul and Erdogan will swap their posts in the future," Fehmi Koru told broadcaster Haberturk on Tuesday.

There are also scenarios circulating the capital Ankara about the post-ruling strategy of the ruling party, Vatan daily claimed on Wednesday.

The Turkish parliament has made constitutional amendments to reduce the presidential duration to five years from seven years and to allow the president to be elected by public vote. Parliamentary elections will also be held every four years, according to the AKP-sponsored amendments.

However it is not clear whether these new regulations will be valid for Gul and the current parliament. In other words a legal uncertainty looms over the duration of Gul’s presidency as well as the parliamentary term.

According to one of the scenarios, if the AKP wins a major victory in the local elections in March 2009, then it will bring the presidential elections to the country's agenda. In such a situation, Gul will resign from office in order to pave the way for the election of the president by the public, Vatan wrote. Assuming Erdogan is elected as president; Gul will then be elected as an MP in by-elections and appointed as prime minister.

If the amendment reducing the presidential term to five years is accepted, the general elections will be held a year earlier in order to hold both the presidential and parliamentary elections together in 2011, the second scenario suggests.

According to the third scenario in Vatan, if it is decided that the amendment is not valid for Gul’s term, then he would not wait until the end of his presidential term and will resign from the post at the end of his fourth year in order to pave the way for Erdogan's presidency.