Turkey:Early general elections are looking almost certain after Turkey's top court cancelled a controversial presidential vote which secularists fear could open the way to the Islamification of Turkey.
Last Friday's parliamentary vote was invalidated by the fact that fewer than two-thirds of deputies attended, constitutional court spokesman Hasim Kilic said in a brief press conference at the Ankara courthouse.
The ruling was met with applause at the headquarters of the secular opposition party that brought the case last Friday.
Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal had warned on Monday that "Turkey could be dragged into open conflict" if the court failed to block the vote.
A spokesman for the government meanwhile insisted that his party would attend a second round of voting today in an effort to garner 367 votes.
"Tomorrow, the vote will go ahead," Cemil Cicek said. "Who knows: maybe some who boycotted the last round will turn out tomorrow?"
However, a senior member of the ruling party said no new ballot would take place until a parliamentary committee had met to fix a new timetable.
The ruling party was joined by only 10 other MPs for Friday's ballot, with opposition party leaders ordering a boycott.
After a weekend in which nearly one million protesters gathered in Istanbul to call for the government's resignation, few analysts expect the opposition boycott today to be any less total.
"Practically, today's decision means that the likelihood of this parliament selecting a president is almost zero," said Murat Yetkin, Ankara bureau chief of the daily Radikal.
That would be a huge victory for those Turks unconvinced that the ruling Justice and Development party, or AKP, is the reformed Muslim democratic party it claims to be. For many secularists, the simple fact the wife of the government's candidate wears a headscarf is proof enough he seeks to install an Islamist regime.
The court's decision is likely to be questioned however, and not just by AKP supporters.
"From the moment the military made its opinion clear, it was clear what the result would be," says Cengiz Candar, a political columnist for business daily Referans. Seven out of 11 of the constitutional court judges, he adds, were appointed by the incumbent president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a well-known secularist hardliner.
Constitutional expert Ergun Ozbudun said the decision was "not just unconstitutional" but - by giving a minority the power to invalidate ballots - made it all but impossible for future parliaments to elect a president.
"It's a historical decision, in the negative sense," he told CNN-Turk television. Critical of the military's recent intervention, European politicians are likely to agree.
Despite all the talk of inevitable early general elections, nobody is sure when they will actually be. Turkish media reported yesterday that senior AKP officials had their eyes on June or July. A government spokesman said a final decision would be made after today's vote.
While an announcement of early elections would be likely briefly to reduce yesterday's high tension, it is far from clear whether it would be enough to counter the deepening polarisation of Turkish society.
In fact snap elections seem likely to create a parliament similar to today's. Opinion polls show the AKP far ahead, and while Mr Baykal's secularists could gain ground, the right-wing parties that joined them in boycotting last Friday's vote may be punished for backing the army.
"The tragedy of Turkish democracy is that it lacks a real civilian opposition," says Omer Taspinar, Turkey expert with the Brookings Institution. "There's AKP and there's the military."