Turkey ruling AKP 'loses majority'

[Valin]

BBC:

June 7 2015

 

Turkey's governing AK party appears on course to lose its parliamentary majority, early projections suggest.

 

They also suggest the pro-Kurdish HDP is set to cross the 10% threshold, securing seats for the first time.With 90% of the vote counted, the AKP had 42% of the vote, according to Turkish TV stations.

 

If confirmed, the result would end the AKP's 13-year single-party rule, and upset President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's plans to boost his office's powers. President Erdogan, who first came to power as prime minister in 2003, has been seeking a two-thirds majority to turn Turkey into a presidential republic.

 

The BBC's Mark Lowen in Istanbul says Sunday's election was the biggest electoral challenge for the AKP since it came to power, with economic growth stalling.

 

(Snip)

 

 

[Valin]

Seth Frantzman ‏@sfrantzman 1h1 hour ago

 

List of groups #Erdogan blamed as enemies in this election campaign:

Armenians

Homosexuals

Jews

Alevis

Kurds

Financiers

Journalists

Gulen

 

10:59 AM - 7 Jun 2015

[Valin]

Turkey's nationalist MHP wants early election if coalition efforts fail

June 7 2015

 

Turkey should hold an early election if the ruling AK Party is unable to agree a coalition with parliament's two other opposition parties, the leader of Turkey's opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) said on Monday.

 

"The first possibility for a coalition should be between the AKP and (pro-Kurdish) HDP. The second model can consist of AKP, (main opposition) CHP and HDP," Devlet Bahçeli said.

 

"If all these scenarios fail, then early elections must be held."

 

According to Sunday's parliamentary election, four major parties will enter the parliament. With more than 99 percent of the votes counted, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) was well ahead of other parties with just under 41 percent, gaining the party around 258 seats in the parliament, just below the threshold of 276 seats, the bare minimum to retain a simple majority in parliament. The results, therefore, suggest that a coalition government is awaiting Turkey.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Kurdish party thwarts Erdogan's ambitions with Turkish election advance
ANKARA | By Ercan Gurses and Nick Tattersall

June 7 2015

 

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's hopes of assuming greater powers suffered a major setback on Sunday when the ruling AK Party he founded failed to win an outright majority in a parliamentary election for the first time.

 

Erdogan, Turkey's most popular modern leader but also its most divisive, had hoped a crushing victory for the AKP would allow it to change the constitution and create a more powerful U.S.-style presidency. To do that, it would have needed to win two-thirds of the seats in parliament.

 

Instead, it has been left unable to govern alone for the first time since it came to power almost 13 years ago. It faces potentially weeks of difficult coalition negotiations with reluctant opposition parties as it tries to form a stable government, and the possibility of another early election.

 

With 98 percent of ballots counted, the AKP took 40.8 percent of the vote, according to broadcaster CNN Turk, down from 49.8 percent at the last parliamentary election in 2011.

 

"Everyone should see that the AKP is the winner and leader of these elections," a defiant Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, leader of the AKP, said in a balcony speech to the party faithful at its headquarters in Ankara.

 

"No one should try to build a victory from an election they lost," he told thousands of supporters.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Emre Peker @wsjemre

#Turkey is almost done tallying all the ballots, here's how it's shaking out:

AKP 40.8%

CHP 25%

MHP 16.3%

HDP 13.1%