Turkey: 80 votes, still no No. 1

May 29, 1980

Serious internal troubles continue to beset Turkey. A heated debate on the Constitution has arisen in the wake of a prolonged deadlock in parliament over the election of a new president.

There also has been a further outbreak of violence and an increase in political tension due to the slaying of Gun Sazak, deputy chairman of Turkey's influential, right-wing Nationalist Movement Party, outside his home in Ankara, Turkey, on May 27.

Mr. Sazak was the highest-ranking political party member to be killed during the recent wave of terrorism.

Meanwhile, 80 ballots held in parliament during the last two months to elect a new president have failed to produce any result. None of the candidates has been able to obtain the necessary simple majority of 318 votes in the two-house legislature.