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General Election Results in Turkey

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  • General Election Results in Turkey

    Independents circumvent the threshold

    ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News


    AP Photo/Serkan Senturk

    Supporters of the Justice and Development Party wave party flags as they celebrate their election victory

    The forces of history hit Turkey with two fists in yesterday's general elections: First the landslide Justice and Development Party (AKP) victory and then scores of “independent” candidates who managed to get into Parliament.

    As of yesterday night, when more than 99.5 percent of all votes were counted, up to 27 independent candidates earned the right to be lawmakers. One of them is Mesut Yılmaz from Rize, a former prime minister. Another is Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu, the leader of the fiery but small, nationalist Grand Unity Party (BBP), who ran as an independent candidate from Sivas. The rest, it seems as of 10:20 p.m., are politicians affiliated to the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP).

    This wave of independent candidates is a first in Turkish history and testifies to an undeniable fact: The 10 percent national threshold in the election system is unsustainable. Indeed, if the threshold was 5 percent – or less, as in many European countries – the Democrat Party (DP), which got 5.39 percent of the vote, or even the Young Party (GP) with 3 percent, would have been represented in Parliament. In a country with more than 42 million voters, the total votes for these two parties amount to nearly 1.9 million. And that amounts to a population almost exactly equal to Slovenia's that have been disenfranchised, left without parliamentary representation. That alone gives an idea on the limits of Turkish democracy.


    DTP’s victory:

    The situation would have been direr if the DTP had not opted for independent candidates. The party, in the 2002 elections, won 6.2 percent of all votes – more than two million voters – but was left out in the cold. This time, though, the balance has shifted considerably and based on unofficial results, at least 23 lawmakers will be affiliated to the DTP – plus Ufuk Uras, the former leader of the socialist Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP), who was carried to Parliament with the DTP’s support.

    Going on last night’s count – more than 98 percent of all votes – the governing AKP will have 340 lawmakers in the new Parliament, which is 27 short of the number needed to choose the new president of the Republic. Thus the pro-Kurdish DTP has suddenly risen to the position of being the “kingmaker” in the Turkish parliament. Considering that the last time pro-Kurdish politicians were in Parliament, they were dragged out by the police and sent to jail, this constitutes remarkable irony.



    Hope for reconciliation:

    Ahmet Türk, the DTP leader – and one of those lawmakers who was put into prison back in 1994, is now back with a vengeance, as an MP from Mardin. Türk gave a message of reconciliation last night, saying that they wish to contribute to peace and democracy, ending the “culture of conflict and violence.”

    Speaking on CNN Türk channel last night, Turk admitted that the AKP got more votes in the southeast than they expected. “Their votes overturned our calculations,” he said. “If the AKP was not this successful, we would have more than 30 lawmakers now.”

    Türk did not hint at what the DTP’s position will be in a presidential election. “It is not possible to talk about that issue from now,” he said: “Who will be the candidate? What will be the conditions? We have to see those first. When the time comes, we will evaluate it. We do not bargain, our only bargain is on democracy.”

    Meanwhile, prominent intellectual Adalet Ağaoğlu, answering a question from the TDN on the soon-to-be-DTP lawmakers' ability to contribute to a solution to the Kurdish problem, said she "lost hope" of such an ability. "They cannot say no to terrorism," said Ağaoğlu. "I am against terrorism, not against Kurds. I am against the words of Leyla Zana [who suggested Turkey should be turned into a federation] but I agree with Aysel Tuğluk [who entered the parliament].
    Independents circumvent the threshold - Turkey's Vote analysis and results with Turkish Daily News Jul 22, 2007

  • #2
    Is Ahmet Turk a fundamentalist like Erdogan?

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    • #3
      Ahmet Turk is the co-chairman of the DTP (Democratic Society Party) and a spokesman for minority rights and Kurdish ethnicity in particular. He is definetely not a fundamentalist Islam supporter.

      Comment


      • #4
        now there is a great chance for DTP.

        if they act and say against terrorism this will be great for all of us.

        if not...
        Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life's key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.

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