ISTANBUL, 23 July 2007 — Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) was re-elected to power for another five-year term yesterday with a mandate for reform.
With nearly all votes counted, the AK Party won 46.6 percent of the popular vote which under Turkey’s weighted proportional representation (WPR) election process will translate into 342 seats in a house of 550. The nationalist-minded Republican People’s Party (CHP) came second with 20.83 percent (112 seats). The far-right National Movement Party (MHP) got 14.26 percent, or 69 seats. The rest were won by independents.
Only three parties — AK Party, CHP and MHP — crossed the 10 percent threshold and made it to Parliament.
At a victory rally, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to press on with Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. “We will continue to work with determination to achieve our European Union goal,” Erdogan told thousands of ecstatic supporters at his party’s headquarters in Ankara.
“We will continue democratic reforms, economic development will continue,” he said.
The Supreme Election Board will announce final results in a week and the new Parliament will be constituted in 10 days. Ironically, the AK Party will have fewer seats in Parliament after the election due to the weighted proportional representation, even though it won more of the popular vote (more than 46 percent) this year than they did in the 2002 elections (34 percent).
The new Parliament will include mostly new faces — more than half of the candidates in individual ridings have not been in Parliament before. The AK Party’s increase in votes reflects a general sense that Turkey has developed, both economically and socially, beyond the divisions which are emphasized by the secular elite.
After casting his vote in the morning, Erdogan told reporters: “Our democracy will emerge from this election strengthened.”
There were reports that several thousand villagers refused to vote because of local grievances. But Nevzat Yukselen, an election official, said the nationwide process went smoothly. “Everything is very organized,” he said. “The voter participation has been very high and it will be good for the country.”
“Obviously (the results) give a mandate to the AKP to go ahead... But there are messages in the increase of the MHP vote, there is nationalist sensitivity there,” said Semih Idiz, a columnist for the centrist Milliyet daily. “I don’t think (the army) is happy, but they’re not going to roll the tanks out. They will explore means of making themselves felt, bearing in mind it’s a government with a strong mandate.”
Erdogan, who denies any Islamist agenda, has presided over strong economic growth and falling inflation since his party swept to power in 2002 on the back of a financial crisis. He has vowed more economic, social and political reforms needed to join the European Union despite skepticism over whether the bloc will ever let Turkey join it.
Opposition parties, on both the left and the right, tried to outflank the AK Party on nationalistic grounds, accusing it of being a servant to foreign powers including the United States and Britain, as well as the IMF and the European Union.
Among the reforms that earned Turkey membership talks with the EU were provisions to trim the influence of the army, as well as promises of social and legal reforms to bring Turkey’s legal code in line with EU norms, protecting both cultural, ethnic and religious freedoms.
The election of Nicolas Sarkozy as France’s president was a blow to Turkey’s EU hopes because he is strongly against Turkey’s membership in the EU.
The impasse over Cyprus has become an excuse for all who want to derail talks, and popular support in Turkey for the EU has diminished.
