Erdoğan lost simple majority in Turkish elections
Mentoring Desk: News coming from Istanbul confirmed that Turkish strongest man and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has lost ground from his feet as his party has faced electoral defeat on Sunday.
Ruling Justice and Development, or AK, party lost its parliamentary majority and it has to find a coalition partner in order to form a government.
According to polls results gathered from 99% of all votes counted, the AKP secured 41% of the vote though it needed over 49% for simple majority while Republican People’s party (CHP) gained its position at 25%. The Nationalist Movement party (MHP) got 16.5% and the pro-Kurdish leftist Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP) gave a surprise to everybody by gaining 12.5%. Results show that stiff position on Syria war and alleged support to radical Islamist inside Syria played a massive role to dip popularity of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“His failure to win an overall majority marks an end to 12 years of uninterrupted, stable single-party rule since it first took power in 2002”, Turkish media reported after 99% results were gathered.
The liberal and leftist HDP gained a lot due to radical position of Erdoğan, over opening Turkish borders for people to enter Syria to wage war against Syrian government and to join Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Turkey is known as base camp for youth to enter Syria and join ISIS.
“The results suggest voters have rejected the ruling party’s attempt to remake the constitution and give more power to Erdoğan, for which it would have needed a two-thirds majority in parliament – or 367 seats. Instead, the AKP appears to have won 258 seats – falling short of the 276 seats required to form a majority government”, reports international news agency.
The party’s projected share of the vote, at around 41%, is below the 49% it received in the parliamentary elections in 2011.
It is the first time the HDP has run as a party in Turkish elections, and is not sending independent candidates into the race, for whom the election threshold does not apply.
Thousands of jubilant Kurds flooded the streets of Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Sunday as the results came in. Erdoğan had repeatedly lashed out at the HDP and its charismatic co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş before the elections.
