The 2000 Turkish presidential election consisted of a first round election 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 Süleyman Sami Demirel (; 1 November 1924 – 17 June 2015) was a Turkish people, Turkish politician, engineer, and statesman who served as the List of Presidents of Turkey, 9th President of Turkey from 1993 to 2000. He previously served as the ...

's seven-year term in office. There was a small effort to convert Turkey's

presidential system A presidential system, or single executive system, is a form of government in which a head of government, typically with the title of president, leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch in systems that use separati ...

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 Ahmet Necdet Sezer (; born 13 September 1941) is a Turkish statesman and judge who served as the tenth president of Turkey from 2000 to 2007. Previously he was president of the Constitutional Court of Turkey from 1998 to 2002. The Grand Nationa ...

, then chief justice at Turkey's

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

. Sezer was endorsed by the leaders of the governing Democratic Left, Nationalist Action and

Motherland A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethni ...

parties, as well as the leaders of the opposition

Virtue Virtue ( la, virtus) is moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that shows high moral standard ...

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 Yıldırım Akbulut (; 2 September 1935 – 14 April 2021) was a Turkish people, Turkish politician, who was a leader of the Anavatan Partisi, Motherland Party (ANAP), the List of Prime Ministers of Turkey, Prime Minister of Turkey, and twice the ...

, who was unable to win popular support and withdrew after the second round.

Procedure

The presidential vote is held in parliament by

secret ballot The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote ...

. A candidate requires a

two-thirds majority 2/3 may refer to: * A fraction with decimal value 0.6666... * A way to write the expression "2 ÷ 3" ("two divided by three") * 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines of the United States Marine Corps * February 3 * March 2 Events Pre-1600 * 537 – ...

- 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.

Results

, - !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left valign=top, Candidates !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left valign=top, Position or political party !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=1st round votes !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=2nd round votes !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=3rd round votes , - , align=left,

, align=left, Chief Justice,

. Cross-party candidate. , 281 , 314 , 330 , - , align=left, Nevzat Yalçıntaş , align=left,

Virtue Party Virtue Party ( tr, Fazilet Partisi, FP) was an Islamist political party established on 17 December 1997 in Turkey. It was found unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court and then banned on 22 June 2001 for violating the secularist articles of ...

(''Fazilet Partisi'') , 61 , 66 , 113 , - , align=left, Sadi Somuncuoğlu , align=left,

Nationalist Movement Party The Nationalist Movement Party (alternatively translated as Nationalist Action Party; tr, Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP) is a Turkish far-right and ultranationalist political party. The group is often described as neo-fascist, and has been ...

(''Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi'') , 58 , 32 , 43 , - , align=left, Rasim Zaimoğlu , align=left,

True Path Party The True Path Party ( tr, Doğru Yol Partisi, DYP) was a centre-right political party in Turkey, active from 1983 to 2007. For most of its history, the party's central figure was Süleyman Demirel, a former Prime Minister of Turkey who previously ...

(''Doğru Yol Partisi'') , 7 , 3 , 24 , - , align=left, Mehmet Mail Büyükerman , align=left, Democratic Left Party (''Demokratik Sol Parti'') , 3 , 2 , 7 , - , align=left,

, align=left, Parliament speaker,

Motherland Party (Turkey) The Motherland Party ( tr, Anavatan Partisi, abbreviated as ANAVATAN, formerly ANAP) is a political party in Turkey. It was founded in 1983 by Turgut Özal. It merged with the Democratic Party in October 2009, but in the September of 2011 the par ...

(''Anavatan Partisi'') , 56 , 88 , colspan=1 rowspan=2, , - , align=left,

Doğan Güreş Doğan Güreş (15 February 1926 – 14 October 2014) was a Turkish general and True Path Party politician. Education After he graduated from Kuleli Military High School in 1945, Güreş kept on studying at the Turkish Military Academy and acc ...

, align=left,

(''Doğru Yol Partisi'') , 35 , 22 , - , align=left, Ahmet İyimaya , align=left,

(''Doğru Yol Partisi'') , 10 , colspan=2 rowspan=3, , - , align=left, Agâh Oktay Güner , align=left,

(''Anavatan Partisi'') , 5 , - , align=left, Oğuz Aygün , align=left, Democratic Left Party (''Demokratik Sol Parti'') , 4 , - , colspan=2 rowspan=1, Spoiled votes , 8 , 2 , 8 , - , colspan=2 rowspan=1, Blank votes , 2 , 3 , 8 , - , align=right colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total MP turnout , width="75" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 530 , width="75" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 532 , width="75" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 533 , - , colspan=6 align=left, Source: Turkish Grand National Assembly online archive

Withdrawn nominations

* Vecdi Gönül, Virtue Party. Fielded his candidacy early on in the election period, withdrew when a cross-party consensus was found in Sezer. Still won five votes in the first ballot. * Gönul Saray Alphan and Turhan İmamoğlu, both Democratic Left Party. Both withdrew their candidacies before the first ballot. {{Turkish presidential elections Presidential elections in Turkey, 2000 2000 elections in Turkey Indirect elections April 2000 events in Turkey May 2000 events in Turkey