2000 Turkish presidential election

2000 Turkish presidential election

← 1993 27 April 2000 (first round) 1 May 2000 (second round) 5 May 2000 (third round) 2007 →
550 members of the Grand National Assembly 276 votes needed to win
Turnout	96.91% 5.35pp
Candidate Ahmet Necdet Sezer Nevzat Yalçıntaş Sadi Somuncuoğlu [tr] Party Independent FP MHP Electoral vote 330 113 43 Percentage 63.83% 21.86% 8.32%
President before election Süleyman Demirel DYP Elected President Ahmet Necdet Sezer Independent

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Indirect presidential elections were held in Turkey on 27 April 2000 followed by a second round vote on 1 May and a third on 5 May. It occurred at the end of 9th president Süleyman Demirel's seven-year term in office. There was a small effort to convert Turkey's presidential system into two terms of five years each, which would have given Demirel an additional three years, but this proposal never found widespread support.

In the months leading to the vote, each of the five largest parliamentary parties informally endorsed their own candidates. However, with their no party with a defining majority, a neutral compromise candidate was sought and eventually found in the form of Ahmet Necdet Sezer, former president of the Turkey's Constitutional Court. Sezer was endorsed by the leaders of the governing Democratic Left, Nationalist Movement and Motherland parties, as well as the leaders of the opposition Virtue and True Path parties.

A number of MPs broke from party lines to nominate themselves. Among them was parliament speaker and former prime minister Yıldırım Akbulut, who was unable to win popular support and withdrew after the second round.

The presidential vote is held in parliament by secret ballot. A candidate requires a two-thirds majority - or 367 votes - to be elected in the first two rounds. If there is no clear winner before the third round, the winning threshold is dropped to a simple majority, or 276 votes. If there is still no winner, the two candidates with the most votes from the third round progress to a runoff election, where the simply majority rule still applies. In the event of no clear winner among the two, the Turkish constitution states that a snap general election must be called to overcome the parliamentary deadlock.

Vecdi Gönül of the Virtue Party withdrew when a cross-party compromise candidate was found in Sezer; however, he Still received five votes in the first ballot. Gönul Saray Alphan and Turhan İmamoğlu of Democratic Left Party had stated they would run but both withdrew their candidacies before the first ballot.

• 2007 Turkish presidential election