A senior official and one of the Turkish Prime Minister’s closest aides declared the ruling party’s wish to see Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as President in 2014, becoming the first government member to formally outline the plan, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

“We of course want to see our Prime Minister as the next President,” Transportation and Communication Minister Binali Yıldırım told Habertürk TV in an interview. “As you know, however, the next president will be elected through a popular vote.”

Despite an ongoing legal confusion over current President Abdullah Gül’s mandate, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) said the next presidential elections would be held in 2014 instead of 2012 as the oppositional parties claim. With at least two years apparently remaining until the presidential elections, some ruling party members have already started to speculate on who could lead the party in Erdoğan’s absence.

Hüseyin Tanrıverdi, deputy leader of the AKP, said the party would welcome the candidacy of Gül as the AKP’s head in the post-2014 period, but the comment drew serious reaction from his party. The Daily News has learned that Tanrıverdi was urged to correct his statement by senior members in the party, which forced him to make consecutive statements saying he was misunderstood.

In earlier statements, Tanrıverdi said: “He [Abdullah Gül] has political experience. If he wants to get involved in politics once again, politics’ doors are open to him. There is no polarization on this issue. We could work with him again as we did in the past.” Tanrıverdi corrected his statements late Dec. 26, underlining that what he expressed was his personal opinions which had never been discussed formally within the party. “There is plenty of time until 2014. Our mission in parliament is to write Turkey’s new constitution,” he said.

The idea of Gül’s return to the leadership of the AKP has not been ruled out as a possible scenario but there is no intention of outlining the swap plan beforehand. Party members do not want to block those who would be interested in running for the AKP leadership in a free and fair poll within the party. Alongside Gül, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Deputy Prime Ministers Ali Babacan and Bülent Arınç and Yıldırım are also seen as potential future leaders.