Siirt Province by-election, 2003

Siirt Province by-election, 2003

← 2002 March 9, 2003 2007 →
← outgoing members Members elected →
All 3 seats of the Province of Siirt to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey
Turnout	61.77%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Deniz Baykal Doğu Perinçek Party AK Party CHP İP Leader since 2001 1992 1992 Last election 1 seat, 17.56% 1 seat, 8.92% 0 seats, 0.14% Seats won 3 0 0 Seat change 2 1 ±0 Popular vote 55,203 8,972 500 Percentage 84.82% 13.79% 0.77% Swing 67.26% 4.87% 0.63%
By-election results by district
Members of Parliament before election Mervan Gül (AKP) Mehmet Fadıl Akgündüz (IND) Ekrem Bilek (CHP) Elected Members of Parliament Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (AKP) Öner Ergenç (AKP) Öner Gülyeşil (AKP)

Mervan Gül (AKP)
Mehmet Fadıl Akgündüz (IND)
Ekrem Bilek (CHP)

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (AKP)
Öner Ergenç (AKP)
Öner Gülyeşil (AKP)

The 2003 by-election in the Province of Siirt was held on 9 March 2003 in order to elect three Members of Parliament from the eastern Turkish province of Siirt to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The by-election was held four months after the 2002 general election in November, which the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey declared null and void in Siirt due to voting irregularities in the district of Pervari. The council decided on 2 December 2002 that the complaints by the local electoral authorities had influenced on the election result, thus calling a by-election.

The by-election remains a significant event in Turkish politics, since it allowed Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to run for parliament. Despite having won the 2002 general election with nearly a two-thirds supermajority, Erdoğan had been barred from running for office due to a previous conviction for inciting religious intolerance in 1998. The AKP government, led by the party's co-founder Prime Minister Abdullah Gül, annulled Erdoğan's political ban and thus allowed him to run in the by-election. Gül subsequently resigned and Erdoğan became the 25th Prime Minister of Turkey on 14 March 2003.