Turkish party keeps term limit, hinting at Erdogan presidency

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By Orhan Coskun ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's ruling AK Party decided on Friday to maintain a three-term limit for its deputies, the clearest signal yet that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan will run in the nation's first direct election for president in August. There has been speculation the AKP would change its rules to enable Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, to stay on as prime minister for a fourth term and finish off a power struggle with an influential Islamic cleric he accuses of seeking to topple him. But in a five-hour meeting to discuss election strategy, chaired by Erdogan, the party's executive board decided not to amend the three-term limit, an internal regulation which the prime minister himself has long publicly championed. "It was decided appropriate to take no steps on the three-term rule," AKP spokesman Huseyin Celik said in a statement.




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