BICOM

The ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) has won its third electoral victory in general elections in Turkey yesterday. With 98% of the votes now counted, the AKP, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyep Erdogan, has 50% of the votes. Its main rival, the Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) has 26%, and the secular radical nationalist MHP has 13%. Analysts saw the buoyant economy as the main reason behind the AKP’s strong showing. However, the party appeared to have fallen just short of attaining the two-thirds majority in the 550 member Turkish parliament, which would have given it the ability to propose a new constitution. 330 seats would be needed for this. The AKP on the present count has 327. The AKP will now be forced to seek agreement with other parties in order to amend the constitution. There had been fears that Erdogan would seek to use constitutional reform as a way to introduce a presidential style of government. This will now be far more difficult. Nevertheless, the results indicate a significant additional political achievement for the Islamic AKP movement, which has ruled Turkey since 2002.