Turkish shares up on early poll

Mr Erdogan has warned the court decision is a "bullet for democracy"

Turkish shares have risen after the country's prime minister called early general elections.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan decided to bring forward the polls from November, after the Constitutional Court annulled the first round of presidential voting.

Both the ISE National 100 and Turkish lira rose about 2% on the news that polls will now be held in June or July.

Shares fell 7.1% on Monday and Tuesday after the military objected to the government's presidential candidate.

But while prime minister Erdogan called early elections to ease tensions between the army, he also warned that the Constitutional Court's decision was a "bullet fired at democracy" that made it "almost impossible" to elect a president in parliament.

Turkey's system of government gives parliament the job of selecting the president.

The Constitutional Court's decision to annul parliament's vote for Abdullah Gul, the sole candidate and member of Mr Erdogan's AK Party, followed the opposition's decision to boycott the process.

That, opposition leaders argued before the court, meant the parliamentary vote had failed to muster the required quorum of two thirds of members present.

Uncertainty

But, while stocks have recovered from losses earlier this week, they have slipped off the day's highs.

Turkey party wants early poll

The ISE 100 closed 1.67% ahead on Wednesday at 44,256.13 points off earlier highs of 45,323.37.

Analysts put the dip down to jitters over the political course to be taken until legislative elections.

"Markets welcomed the early elections, but it does not seem to be a radical solution. We are headed for a period that will not be so smooth," Fortis Bank economist Haluk Burumcekci told the AFP news agency.

Crisis

Turkey's current crisis erupted over widespread opposition to Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul's sole candidacy for the role of president.

Opponents believe that should Mr Gul be elected to the post, a former member of a banned Islamist party, it would pose a threat to Turkey's secular political system by eroding the separation of state and religion.

On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people staged a rally in Istanbul in support of secularism.

Meanwhile, the army has said it would step in to protect the country's secular political system.

The army has ousted four governments since 1960. The last time it did so was in 1997, when Mr Gul was a member of the deposed cabinet.