Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the most votes in Sunday’s election but lost its parliamentary majority and will need to form a coalition, according to official results based on 98% of votes counted.
The AKP secured 41% of the vote, followed by the Republican People’s Party (CHP) on 25%, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on 16.5 and the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) fourth on 12.5%.
Record voter turnout
The results mean that the HDP has easily passed Turkey’s 10% threshold for winning seats in the parliament, which was one of the main points of suspense in the poll.
According to the official seat projection, the AKP will have 259 seats in the 550-seat parliament, the CHP 131, the MHP 82 and the HDP 78.
The results also wreck Erdogan’s dream of agreeing a new constitution to switch Turkey from a parliamentary to a presidential system that he had made a fundamental point of the campaign.
Such a change would have required a two-thirds majority in the parliament.
Erdogan – premier from 2003-2014 before becoming president – wanted to be enshrined as Turkey’s most powerful figure and strengthen the office of the presidency which was largely ceremonial until his arrival.
No coalition with AK Party
The leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party ruled out a coalition with the AK Party, saying the results of a parliamentary election had put an end to discussion about a presidential system.
“The discussion of executive presidency and dictatorship has come to an end in Turkey with these elections,” Selahattin Demirtas told a news conference in Istanbul.
Streets filled with joy
As the results started emerging, thousands of jubilant Kurds flooded the streets of Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakir, setting off fireworks and waving flags as the pro-Kurdish opposition looked likely to enter parliament as a party for the first time.
“This result shows that this country has had enough. Enough of Erdogan and his anger,” said Seyran Demir, a 47-year-old housewife who was among the thousands who gathered in the streets around the HDP’s provincial headquarters. “I am so full of joy that I can’t speak properly.”
The crowds brought traffic to a standstill in parts of the city, the largest in Turkey’s southeast. Elsewhere, young people drove through sidestreets hanging out of car windows and waving HDP flags.
Men fired pistols into the air, a traditional sign of celebration. Just two days earlier, bombs tore through a HDP rally in Diyarbakir, killing two and wounding at least 200.
“The reason the HDP has won this many votes is because it has not excluded any members of this country, unlike our current rulers,” said 25-year-old Siar Senci.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 8th, 2015.
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