Turkey?s new parliament began voting yesterday in a presidential election which Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is set to win months after the country?s secular elite blocked the former Islamist?s first bid.

His centre-right AK Party has been strengthened by a convincing win in July?s general election, called early to defuse a crisis over the presidency, and Gul is widely expected to be elected this time around despite some fierce opposition.

Yesterday?s vote was the first of up to four rounds and Gul is likely to be elected in the third session on August 28 when he needs only a simple majority ? which the AK Party has. Before that he needs two thirds of the votes to win, which is unlikely because the ultra-nationalist opposition MHP has fielded its own candidate, Sabahattin Cakmakoglu, and the pro-Kurdish DTP has signalled it will not vote for Gul. Leftist DSP is also fielding its own candidate, Tayfun Icli. The MHP has however made Gul?s election more likely, just by agreeing to take part. The first vote in April was derailed by a a court ruling that two thirds of parliament had to be present ? impossible amid an opposition boycott. ?The first step towards the presidential palace,? said a headline in Aksam newspaper, alongside a picture of Gul standing beside the Turkish flag.