Constitutional court to elect new head

Sumru Cortoglu, the chairperson of Turkey's Council of State, will step down tomorrow, as he has reached the mandatory retirement age. Turkey's top administrative court will start electing its new head on May 20. Court members Yilmaz Cimen, Mustafa Birden, Gursoy Gonenc and Turgut Candan have all declared they will seek the post. Candidates must have eight years' experience with the court, and they need the votes of at least 44 members to win. The court's chief justice is elected through a secret ballot. If no winner emerges from the first three rounds, a runoff between the top two candidates follows. If this also produces no winner, the election process will start again. The new Council of State chair will serve the court for four years, if mandatory retirement age is not reached. A member of the Council of State since 1992, Cortoglu was elected its head two years ago.