Turkish opposition name former top Muslim envoy as presidential nominee

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's two main opposition parties named a prominent Islamic diplomat on Monday as their joint candidate for an August presidential election in which Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is also expected to run.

The secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) said they had agreed to nominate Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who stepped down in December as head of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, or OIC.

The choice by the CHP, party of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of Turkey's modern secular republic, reflects how religious conservatism has grown in the country of 77 million people in recent years.

The election will be the first time Turks have voted directly for their president. Erdogan has made little secret of his ambition to stand but has yet to formally announce his bid.

"This proposal is good for our nation. The MHP is also wishing to unite behind this name and to conclude the presidential election without it turning into a crisis," MHP leader Devlet Bahceli and his CHP counterpart, Kemal Kilicdaroglu said in a joint statement.

"Under today's circumstances, we will be working on this name together," Bahceli said.

Ihsanoglu was secretary general of the Jeddah-based OIC, which represents 57 Islamic countries, for nine years during which it focused on a fruitless effort to have the United Nations pass a global ban on insults to Islam. Last December, he became the first OIC chief to meet the Pope and later told Reuters in an interview that some Muslim states should broaden rights for religious minorities. But Cairo-born Ihsanoglu is relatively unknown among the public and lacks the domestic profile to challenge a man who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade.

"In principle it is very rational to put forward a conservative candidate. If you look at voting behaviour, it is highly unlikely for Turks to pick a liberal president," Ziya Meral, a London-based Turkish academic, told Reuters.

"But Ihsanoglu is not the man ... He might have served as a mediator in his role at the OIC, but he is so far away from the dynamics of Turkish politics, particularly from the presidential expectations of Turkish voters."

LATE TO THE GAME

Erdogan aspires to transform the presidency into a strong executive and senior officials from his Islamist-rooted AK Party have said he will stand in the August race.

Buoyed by the AK Party's strong showing in March municipal elections, when it took 43 percent of the national vote despite a corruption scandal and anti-government protests last summer, they predict his victory in the first round on Aug. 10. One aide has said he is likely to rule as president until 2023.

Erdogan has effectively begun campaigning, addressing rallies in the Black Sea cities of Rize and Trabzon in recent days. In May, he travelled to Germany to address thousands of potential supporters after changes to the electoral system made it easier for the diaspora to vote.

Erdogan's AK Party backed Ihsanoglu to lead the OIC but he was criticised by the cabinet last year after the organisation did not follow Ankara in condemning the toppling of Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Mursi by the army as a military coup.

Justice minister Bekir Bozdag, one of Erdogan's inner circle, said on Monday he would have resigned in Ihsanoglu's place, in shame at an Islamic organisation remaining silent, according to Turkish news website T24.

CHP parliamentary group spokesman Akif Hamzacebi said Ihsanoglu had been chosen after extensive discussion between Kilicdaroglu, Bahceli and civil society groups and that it would be wrong to see him as the candidate of just two parties.

"He emerges as the candidate of a much wider consensus," he told Reuters in Ankara.

Whether he will appeal to CHP loyalists who support the party for its secularist ideals is another question.

"They believe that the country is shifting towards Islamism but I don't believe that," said Erim, a 34-year old digital animator in Istanbul. "I would never vote for non-secular candidate so now I have no options."

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Dasha Afansieva in Istanbul; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Catherine Evans)