Turkey's Parliamentary Consultative Board (PCB) will hold a meeting on Wednesday for the repeat of the first round of the presidential elections, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday.

Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc Tuesday called on the PCB board to hold the meeting at local time 11.00 a.m. (GMT 0800) Wednesday, said the report.

Arich made the call after the Constitutional Court annulled the results of the first round of presidential voting on Friday because the requirement of a quorum of 367 was not reached.

The only candidate, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, who was nominated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), received 357 votes, 10 votes short of the 367 majority required in the 550-seat parliament.

A total of 361 MPs cast their votes in the first round of elections at the chamber. Three votes were invalid and one vote was vacant.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), which decided to boycott the voting, on Friday applied to the Constitutional Court to cancel the election since the parliament convened with less than 367 lawmakers to elect the president.

Turkey's Constitutional Court with majority of vote annulled the first round of the presidential vote dominated by concerns over the rising profile of political Islam.

The court's deputy chief judge Hasim Kilic announced that the court had cancelled the first round of vote for the president because the requirement of a quorum of 367 was not reached, adding it meant that the second round could not be held and the first round had to be repeated.

Turkish government spokesman Cemil Cicek said on Tuesday that the parliament will hold a new vote on Wednesday in a bid to elect a president.

But the speaker's office thinks that the second round vote cannot be held on Wednesday, adding Gul's presidential candidacy has been continuing legally.

Source: Xinhua