Elections in Turkey

[Ellinas]

Turks begin voting in parliamentary election

Turks began voting on Sunday in a parliamentary election pitting the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party against nationalists who disagree strongly over the future path of the rigidly secular Muslim country.

Opinion polls tip the pro-business AK Party to govern alone for five more years, but the size of their majority will be key.

Polling booths opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) in east Turkey. In the west, including the capital Ankara and main commercial city Istanbul, they opened an hour later.

Unofficial results are due after 9 p.m. (1800 GMT). Some 43 million Turks out of a population of 74 million can vote.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, the most popular politician in Turkey, called the poll months early after the secular establishment, with its powerful army ally, stopped him appointing a fellow ex-Islamist, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, as president.

Erdogan says an expected increased share of votes for his AK Party will boost democracy in Turkey, whose army removed a government it deemed too Islamist as recently as 1997.

The charismatic leader pledges more economic, social and political reforms needed to join the European Union despite growing skepticism over whether the bloc will let Turkey join.

Only two other parties -- the center-left but nationalist Republican People's Party (CHP) and far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) -- look set to pass the high 10 percent national threshold to enter parliament.

They say the vote is about defending Turkey's secular system against political Islam, though Erdogan laughs off CHP claims he wants to turn Turkey, which bridges Europe and the Middle East, into an Iranian-style theocracy.

Some independent, mostly pro-Kurdish candidates, are also tipped to win seats in the 550-member parliament.

Even with a higher share of the vote, the AK Party may end up with fewer seats because the opposition is more united than in 2002, and fall well short of the two-thirds majority needed to change a constitution that enshrines secularism.

This scenario has helped propel Turkish financial markets to record highs. Investors applaud the party's free-market policies, but fear too large a majority could reignite tensions with the secularists, including the popular army.

The next government will quickly face new challenges.

It has to tackle rising Kurdish separatist violence in the east and decide whether the army can enter northern Iraq to crush Turkish Kurdish rebels based there, a move that is increasingly worrying the United States.

It must also find a compromise candidate for president and speed up EU-inspired reforms or risk an economic backlash.

The AK Party's record of economic growth of seven percent a year on average, falling inflation and record foreign investment has won over many Turks fed up with mismanagement, corruption, fractious coalitions and four military coups in five decades.

The party also secured coveted EU accession talks in 2005 after 40 years of trying, but a rising tide of nationalism has brought reforms to a standstill.

Analysts say this election is one of the most important in a quarter century because it is key to Turkey's future direction.


Secular Turks, long in charge of key state institutions and businesses, are being challenged by a rising middle class of more pious Muslims tired of restrictions on their way of life, most visibly the ban on women's head scarves in public buildings.

To assuage secularist fears, Erdogan has discarded some more Islamist-minded candidates and fielded more women and centrists.

CNN

[Ellinas]

Turkey's ruling party leads vote

Turkey's ruling AK Party won 48.1 percent of the vote in a landslide national election victory on Sunday after two thirds of votes had been counted, private broadcaster CNN Turk said.

Two other parties crossed Turkey's high national threshold of 10 percent to enter parliament, with the leftist CHP winning 19.4 percent and the ultra-nationalist MHP on 14.7 percent, the broadcaster quoted partial returns as showing.

A senior official for the pro-business center-right AK Party declared victory, saying it would win enough seats to form a single-party government for a second five-year term.

Polls closed an hour earlier in eastern Turkey where the Republican People's Party (CHP) and far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are relatively weak, so the early figures might not be entirely representative of the final results.

Electoral commission officials estimated turnout at around 80 percent in a country of 74 million people where voting is compulsory.

If both the CHP and MHP clear Turkey's 10 percent hurdle to enter parliament, as the figures indicated, it was unclear whether the AKP would end up with a bigger majority of seats, despite winning some 15 percentage points more than in 2002.

"Our democracy will emerge from this election strengthened," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told reporters as he and his headscarfed wife Emine cast their ballots in his conservative Uskudar constituency in Istanbul before returning to Ankara.

Erdogan, 53, Turkey's most popular politician, called the poll months early after the secular elite, including the powerful army, stopped him appointing a fellow ex-Islamist, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, as president.

Secularists say the AK Party wants to undermine Turkey's strict separation of religion and state, and although the ruling party denies this, the warning struck a chord with some voters.

Turkey is one of the Muslim world's few democracies.

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 scepticism over whether the bloc will ever let Turkey join.

"The AK Party has really helped the poor of this country. They distribute food, coal. They give money for our daughters to go to school," said Huseyin Yilmaz, 34, an unemployed man living in a shanty town on the edge of the capital Ankara.

Some independent, mostly pro-Kurdish candidates, are also tipped to win seats in the 550-member parliament.

Turkish security forces have been battling PKK Kurdish rebels since 1984 in a conflict that has cost more than 30,000 lives. Violent clashes have increased over the past year.

Turkey's next government will have to decide whether to send the army into northern Iraq to crush PKK rebels based there, a move that is increasingly worrying the United States.

Nationalists are also sceptical about Turkey's EU bid.

[antonio]

Turkey must be prevented from joining the European Union.

[Ellinas]

Karamanlis congratulates Erdogan on re-election

SARAJEVO (ANA-MPA - N. Pelpas) Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Monday called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the phone and congratulated him on his party's victory in the Turkish general elections on Sunday.

In his talks with the Turkish prime minister, Karamanlis invited Erdogan to "work together to create conditions that will lead to even better cooperation between our two countries".

During earlier statements on the Turkish election result that Karamanlis made in Sarajevo, where he is on an official visit, he urged the new government to pick up the pace of reforms required by the European Union.

"I would like to believe that yesterday's result will contribute to Turkey continuing its reform efforts with greater efficiency and at a more intense pace and, of course, carrying out the commitments in has undertaken in the framework of its European perspective," Karamanlis said.

He also underlined that Greece was following and actively supporting this effort with strong interest.

"To have Turkey progress on the path toward democracy and Europe, to prove in practice its respect for international law and international treaties is in the interest of both the Turkish people and our entire neighbourhood," the Greek premier added.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis is in Sarajevo on a 24-hour visit that ends early on Tuesday.

[Hellenika]

Originally Posted by Ellinas
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"To have Turkey progress on the path toward democracy and Europe, to prove in practice its respect for international law and international treaties is in the interest of both the Turkish people and our entire neighbourhood," the Greek premier added.

Did Karamanlis have a gun pointed to his head when he made that statement? Progress on path toward democracy? Don't you need a civilized population to have a democracy? Islam and democracy? Good one. I'd also like to see them "practice respect" for laws and treaties. Again, these things are only respected and practiced by civilized nations, not savage ones.

[antonio]

Originally Posted by Hellenika
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Did Karamanlis have a gun pointed to his head when he made that statement? Progress on path toward democracy? Don't you need a civilized population to have a democracy? Islam and democracy? Good one. I'd also like to see them "practice respect" for laws and treaties. Again, these things are only respected and practiced by civilized nations, not savage ones.

You are 100% correct. Theocracy doesn't mix with Democracy.

Concerning respect for treaties, the nonsense they pulled on Imia springs to mind.

[Prokomenos]

I think Karamanlis is just saying that so Greece does not look like the back guy. I could be wrong though. In the end Turkey will enter the EU eventually whether we like it or not atleast thats my opinion.

[Hellenika]

Originally Posted by Prokomenos
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I think Karamanlis is just saying that so Greece does not look like the back guy. I could be wrong though. In the end Turkey will enter the EU eventually whether we like it or not atleast thats my opinion.

He just sounds like a huge ass kisser. Making Greece look weak and stupid too. Shouldn't turkey be the one doing the kissing?

[Prokomenos]

I just read in the paper this morning which got me sick to my stomach. The author was praising Ataturk as a brilliant great man who tolerated all religions and so on!

I also read that Turkey is going to fall back to the dark ages with these elections. The Sharia law will be in affect and so on. The author was also saying that Turkey's chances for the EU will most likely be shot. Then again this was an American newspaper so I never believe what they write.