The center-left but nationalist Republican People's Party (CHP), the closest rival of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's AK Party, won nearly 20 percent of the vote, finishing the race close to the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The MHP secured a return ticket to Parliament, following a five-year break, with 15 percent. The results reflected 80 percent of the votes having been counted when Today's Zaman went to print.
Yesterday's vote came in a highly polarized political atmosphere, marred by a memorandum from the military which warned of an intervention in politics amid parliamentary backbiting over the election of the next president. Tensions also increased when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in several provinces across Turkey to oppose a president from the AK Party ranks, something they said would constitute a threat to their secular lifestyle under the AK Party government.
"This is a memorandum from the people," commented Milliyet daily columnist Hasan Cemal in televised remarks. "People showed that they do not want polarization."
The main opposition CHP hoped to benefit from the republic rallies and boost support from urban secularists in its bid to unseat the government. "This time, every single vote has great value," CHP leader Deniz Baykal said a day before the elections. But his party's performance was rather lukewarm, and showed little improvement on the last elections in 2002, when it won around 19 percent.
The AK Party urged the public to provide its support, pledging the continued stability and economic growth that it has presided over during the past four-and-a-half years in power. "Our democracy will emerge from this election strengthened," Prime Minister Erdoğan told reporters as he and his wife Emine cast their ballots in his Üsküdar constituency on the Asian side of İstanbul. "This will be a message not only for our country but also for the entire world."
Investors were already pricing in a new AK Party government and the results of yesterday's polls are expected to give a fresh boost to Turkish markets and investor confidence. The European Union is also expected to welcome the results, given the critical positions of the AK Party's rivals towards more reforms to advance Turkey's membership bid.
Single-party government, three-party Parliament
Yesterday's results meant only three parties were able to enter Parliament by overcoming a 10 percent national election threshold, namely the AK Party, the CHP and the MHP. More than 20 independent deputies, most of whom are backed by the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), also won seats in Parliament. Other high-profile independent candidates included former Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz, who won 23 percent of the votes in the Black Sea province of Rize, and Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu, leader of the nationalist Grand Unity Party (BBP).
Although it won more votes than it did in the past, the AK Party is set to get fewer seats given the fact that the parliamentary seats will be distributed among three parties now, instead of two as was the case after 2002 elections.
The AK Party is still certain to form a single-party government, controlling, however, fewer seats than required to change the Constitution or elect the president on its own.
Yesterday's election was called early to defuse political tension after the AK Party failed to get its candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül, elected as president in the face of a boycott by opposition parties. The vote was later cancelled by the Constitutional Court, which upheld an application from the CHP that there were less than 367 deputies in attendance.
The first task before the new Parliament now is to conclude the unfinished job and elect a new president to replace President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, whose term expired in May. Under the Constitutional Court ruling, at least 367 deputies should attend the vote on the new president, something that is not possible without AK Party winning the consent of at least one of the other parties. Erdoğan earlier signaled that he would seek consensus from other parties over the next presidential candidate, although he made it clear that Gül would remain a candidate as long as he wishes to.
Daily Milliyet on Saturday quoted Gül as saying that the military's warning had helped his party during the election campaign because voters were angry at the effort to influence the political process. "The intervention in the presidential election process deeply offended the Turkish people," he said. "This is how the people are showing their reaction."
Yesterday's election also came amid growing nationalist sentiments and calls from the military to launch a cross-border offensive into northern Iraq to crush bases of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has stepped up its attacks in southeastern Anatolia in the recent months. The new government will have to decide whether Turkey should stage an offensive into northern Iraq despite US and Iraqi objection.
Analysts expect a more highly charged political atmosphere in the post-election era, given the deep divisions on both the election of a new president and a possible northern Iraq incursion.
Election deals blow to opposition
In the Democratic Party (DP), which got around 5 percent of the votes, thus failing to enter Parliament, the election triggered a change in leadership. The party's Chairman Mehmet Ağar, along with Deputy Chairman Nüzhet Kandemir resigned after poll results showed the party had no chance of entering Parliament.
After an unsuccessful drive to unite forces with another center-right party, the Motherland Party (ANAVATAN) of Erkan Mumcu, DP ran in the election alone; ANAVATAN decided not to stand in the polls.
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