Turkey is back to single-party rule after months of uncertainty. The Islamist-rooted AK Party swept to an unexpected victory yesterday, an outcome that surprised even the party supporters. When all the votes were counted, the party bagged a huge 50 percent of the votes, giving it 315 seats in the 550-seat parliament, comfortably enough to control a majority, and a far higher margin of victory than even party members had expected. The result is a personal victory for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The main opposition CHP bagged just 25.4 percent, making any hopes of a coalition impossible.
The results show that Turks have voted for stability, as Erdogan had demanded. In June, the AKP lost the overall majority it had enjoyed since 2002. Erdogan had presented Sunday’s polls as a chance to restore stability at a time of crisis in the country triggered by Kurdish insurrection and two bombings which were attributed to the Islamic State. Turkey had known stability and solid economic growth for a long time making the country a model for the Islamic world and the fear of losing both had made people vote in huge numbers for the AK Party. The voters realised that this is not a time for experiments; any further uncertainty resulting from a hung parliament would have pushed the country deeper into crisis, which it can ill-afford with Syria still in civil war and the Kurdish problem still burning.
“Thanks be to God,” Prime Minister and AKP leader Ahmet Davutoglu tweeted after the results were known. “Today is a victory for our democracy and our people ...
Hopefully we will serve you well for the next four years and stand in front of you once again in 2019,” he said.
Erdogan and his party can celebrate at the unexpected victory, but the onus is on them to heal the wounds that have opened up due to divisions in the society. Some experts say the results can sharpen social divisions. For example, the co-leader of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said yesterday the outcome was the result of a deliberate policy of polarisation by President Erdogan. Figen Yuksekdag said the HDP would analyse in a detail a drop in its support since the last parliamentary election in June, but said the fact the party had crossed the 10 percent threshold needed to enter parliament was nonetheless a success.
Erdogan will have adopt a policy of reconciliation and must explore every opportunity to win the confidence of every section of society, including his opponents. Since June’s poll, a ceasefire with Kurdish militants has collapsed. The new government will also have to work assiduously to make peace with Kurds.
Turkey is back to single-party rule after months of uncertainty. The Islamist-rooted AK Party swept to an unexpected victory yesterday, an outcome that surprised even the party supporters. When all the votes were counted, the party bagged a huge 50 percent of the votes, giving it 315 seats in the 550-seat parliament, comfortably enough to control a majority, and a far higher margin of victory than even party members had expected. The result is a personal victory for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The main opposition CHP bagged just 25.4 percent, making any hopes of a coalition impossible.
The results show that Turks have voted for stability, as Erdogan had demanded. In June, the AKP lost the overall majority it had enjoyed since 2002. Erdogan had presented Sunday’s polls as a chance to restore stability at a time of crisis in the country triggered by Kurdish insurrection and two bombings which were attributed to the Islamic State. Turkey had known stability and solid economic growth for a long time making the country a model for the Islamic world and the fear of losing both had made people vote in huge numbers for the AK Party. The voters realised that this is not a time for experiments; any further uncertainty resulting from a hung parliament would have pushed the country deeper into crisis, which it can ill-afford with Syria still in civil war and the Kurdish problem still burning.
“Thanks be to God,” Prime Minister and AKP leader Ahmet Davutoglu tweeted after the results were known. “Today is a victory for our democracy and our people ...
Hopefully we will serve you well for the next four years and stand in front of you once again in 2019,” he said.
Erdogan and his party can celebrate at the unexpected victory, but the onus is on them to heal the wounds that have opened up due to divisions in the society. Some experts say the results can sharpen social divisions. For example, the co-leader of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said yesterday the outcome was the result of a deliberate policy of polarisation by President Erdogan. Figen Yuksekdag said the HDP would analyse in a detail a drop in its support since the last parliamentary election in June, but said the fact the party had crossed the 10 percent threshold needed to enter parliament was nonetheless a success.
Erdogan will have adopt a policy of reconciliation and must explore every opportunity to win the confidence of every section of society, including his opponents. Since June’s poll, a ceasefire with Kurdish militants has collapsed. The new government will also have to work assiduously to make peace with Kurds.
