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Erdogan’s Party in Turkey Seems Poised to Regain Parliamentary Majority Erdogan’s Party in Turkey Regains Parliamentary Majority
(34 minutes later)
ISTANBUL — The Islamist party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday seemed poised to regain its majority in Parliament in a snap election, according to preliminary results published by TRT, the state broadcaster. ISTANBUL — The Islamist party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday regained its majority in Parliament in a snap election that represented a stunning electoral comeback, and ensured another period of single party government in Turkey and the continued political dominance of Mr. Erdogan.
If the results hold, it would represent a stunning electoral comeback, and ensure another period of single-party government in Turkey and the continued political dominance of Mr. Erdogan. The margin of victory was not enough to secure Mr. Erdogan’s long-held ambition of establishing an executive presidency, but with his party in firm power the result all but guaranteed that Mr. Erdogan will be able to maintain his position as the country’s pre-eminent political figure while pushing the boundaries of the constitutional limits of the presidency, a largely ceremonial position.
With 92 percent of the votes counted, according to TRT, Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., garnered 49.6 percent of the vote, which would give it a majority of the seats in Parliament based on the system of apportionment. This represents a sharp increase from the roughly 41 percent the party received in June’s national election, which for the first time in more than a decade had denied the A.K.P. a parliamentary majority. After failed coalition talks in the wake of that vote, Mr. Erdogan called for a new election. With more than 95 percent of the votes counted, according to state broadcaster TRT, the Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., captured 49.4 percent of the popular vote, which would give the party a solid majority of 316 seats in Parliament.
That Turkish voters appeared to deliver his party a majority all but guaranteed that Mr. Erdogan, whose term as president expires in 2019, will be able to maintain his position as the country’s pre-eminent political figure while pushing the boundaries of the constitutional limits of the presidency, a largely ceremonial position. The outcome represented a significant victory for Mr. Erdogan, whose party has now won four national elections, beginning in 2002, and a spectacular upset given that most polls had predicted a result similar to June’s national election, which for the first time in more than a decade had denied A.K.P. a parliamentary majority. In that vote, the A.K.P. received about 41 percent of the vote.
The outcome would represent a significant victory for Mr. Erdogan, whose party has now won four national elections, beginning in 2002, and a spectacular upset given that most polls had predicted a result similar to June’s national election. The victory, at the same time, seemed to validate Mr. Erdogan’s electoral strategy of turning more nationalist, and taking a harder line with Kurdish militants in the southeast, where a long-running war resumed in recent months. Much of the party’s gains seemed to come at the expense of the far-right nationalist party, as voters switched to the A.K.P.
The results so far appear to validate Mr. Erdogan’s electoral strategy of turning more nationalist, and taking a harder line with Kurdish militants in the southeast, where a long-running war resumed in recent months, and then making a case to the electorate that only an A.K.P. victory could guarantee stability. “The gamble has seemed to work,” said Suat Kiniklioglu, the executive director of the Center for Strategic Communication, a research organization in Ankara. Mr. Kiniklioglu, a former lawmaker in Mr. Erdogan’s party who has become a sharp critic of his policies, said, “it’s a huge success for the A.K.P.”