Erdogan’s ruling AKP wins Turkish election

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s moderate Islamic AKP party has won a landslide victory in Turkey’s parliamentary elections. On the eve of the elections, Erdogan vowed to continue fighting for his country’s full EU membership.

The governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) won 47% of votes in Sunday’s (22 July 2007) general elections in Turkey. This will allow the AKP to take 340 out of 550 seats in the Grand National Assembly and form a single-party government. The AKP managed to exceed expectations and scoop an extra 13% of votes, compared with the 2002 election results.

Following the announcement of the election results on 22 July, Erdogan said: “We will press ahead with reforms and the economic development that we have been following so far.” He added: “We will continue to work with determination to achieve our EU goal.”

Major reforms, a continuing economic boom and the opening of membership negotiations with the EU in 2005 are among the AKP’s main achievements during its past legislature.

In a statement on 23 July, Commission President José Manuel Barroso congratulated Erdogan on the election results: “This comes at an important moment for the people of Turkey as the country moves forward with political and economic reforms. Prime Minister Erdogan has given his personal commitment to the sustained movement towards the EU. I wish him every success with his new mandate.”

The two opposition parties, the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), both managed to pass the 10% threshold and secure seats in the parliament, together winning 20% and 14% of votes respectively. Following the political mayhem that preceded the elections, the turnout was 80%.

One of the first tasks of the newly elected parliament will be the election of a president to succeed Ahmet Necdet Sezer. The battle over presidential candidate Abdullah Gül, proposed by the AKP, plunged Turkey into a major political crisis.

However, the AKP fell short of winning the two-thirds majority necessary to push through their presidential candidate. Following a ruling by the highest court, a minimum of two-thirds of the plenum needs to participate in the presidential elections, thus forcing the political parties to agree on a compromise candidate. 

Read more with Euractiv

Turkey's landmark elections

Prime Minister Erdogan’s AKP party is tipped to scoop most of the votes in this Sunday's general elections (22 July). A clear outcome could help to overcome Turkey's political crisis over its secular values, which has been shaking the country for months.