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Erdogan’s party sweeps Turkey polls

Atul Aneja

Prime Minister promises reformist, democratic Government

— Photo: AFP

SECULAR AGENDA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (second right), his wife Emine (right), Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and his wife Hayrunissa at the Justice and Development party headquarters in Ankara on Monday.

DUBAI: Turkey’s Justice and Development (AK) party led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has Islamic roots, has swept Sunday’s polls, cornering 46.7 per cent of the votes and 341 seats in the 550-member Parliament.

Elections were held four months ahead of schedule following a row between the AK party-led Government and the military over the issue of presidential elections. The military and the secular Opposition had opposed the candidature of AK party nominee Abdullah Gul for President. The Opposition considered Mr. Gul unfit for the presidency because of his perceived Islamic leanings.

As the results were declared, Mr. Erdogan sought to reassure the electorate and the secularists that the new Government would not deviate from the country’s founding principles.

“We are the strongest advocates of a democratic, secular, social state governed by the rule of law,” Mr. Erdogan said in his acceptance speech. “I call on all leaders not to close their doors. Let’s get around a table and discuss the problems of Turkey’s democracy and make the rule of law reign.” He added that the new Government would remain wedded to the principles of economic reforms and the goal of joining the European Union. While the AK party received a record number of votes compared to polls held since the fifties, its numerical strength in Parliament of 341 is less than the 367 seats it had got in the previous elections.

The Centre-Left Republican People’s Party (CHP) retained its position as the main Opposition, getting 21 per cent of the votes. The party, however, was expected to perform better because of its merger with the Democrat Left Party (DSP). The ultra-nationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) received 14.3 per cent of the votes.

Meanwhile, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) managed to get into Parliament 25 candidates, who contested as independents.

Analysts point out that the new Government’s relationship with the military will be on test. In the past, the military has staged two coups and in 1997 ensured the exit of the government led by the then Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan because of his Islamic leanings.

The Kurdish question is also likely to remain centre-stage. Mr. Erdogan, in his first term in office, had threatened a military incursion into Iraq to destroy the sanctuaries of the separatist Kurdish group, Kurdistan Workers Party.

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