The new list excludes 70 current deputies as AK Party bylaws does not allow its members to have three consecutive terms in Parliament.
According to the list, the first place for candidacy in Istanbul's district one, which the was the spot for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during the previous elections when he was running as a member of the parliament, has been granted to current Environment and Urbanism Minister, İdris Güllüce. The first spot in Istanbul's second district has been granted to European Union Minister Volkan Bozkır, and Vice President of AK Party in charge of elections has been granted the first spot in Istanbul's third district.
In Ankara's two electoral districts, Deputy PM Yalçın Akdoğan has been listed as the first candidate in district one, and Ankara deputy Emrullah İşler as the first candidate in district two.
In Izmir's district one, Minister of Forestry and Water of Turkey and current Member of Parliament for Afyonkarahisar, Veysel Eroğlu has been listed as the first candidate. In İzmir's second district, the first spot for candidacy has been given to economist and academician Mustafa İbrahim Turhan, who was previously a CEO and a Member of the Board for Borsa Istanbul.
Turkey's Minister of Finance, Mehmet Şimşek, has been listed as a candidate from Turkey's southeastern province of Gaziantep. Current Edirne deputy and Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu listed as a candidate from western province of Bursa, and Deputy PM Numan Kurtulmuş, from Black Sea Region province of Ordu. Berat Albayrak, husband of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's elder daughter Esra, is one of the candidates for Istanbul, the party announced.
Former Economy Minister, Zafer Çağlayan, former Interior Minister, Muammer Güler, and former Environment and Urbanism Minister, Erdoğan Bayraktar had declared that they will not run as candidates. In addition, former European Union Minister Egemen Bağış could not run for the elections as he completed his third consecutive term as an MP.
AK Party Deputy PM and Spokesperson, Beşir Atalay, also held press conference after the party's list for candidates for June 7 general election was announced on Tuesday afternoon.
Atalay has said that, despite meeting party's candidacy criteria, many candidacy nominees were not listed as they had close ties of kinship with the current candidates or prominent figures of the party.
Answering a question from the press, Atalay said that Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek's son, Osman Gökçek, is among those who were left out of the final list.
Atalay added that a new constitution will be one of the main focuses of the election campaign and continued, "Here, a fully democratic constitution that has humanity in its focal point, protects separation of powers, and has governance with very good control mechanisms, is what we hold as the most important. There are examples of parliamentary and presidential systems in the world. These will be discussed, however, a presidential system that will have all these democratic criteria will be the focus of our election declaration."
