FES BRIEFING The Turkish Election RESULTS AND NEXT STEPS June 2011 1. Results For the third time in a row, the conservative Islamic Justice and Development Party(AKP) – chaired by the Turkish Prime Minister Erdo ğ an – won the general election with 49.8%(2007 results:46.5%) of the votes. The runner-up was the Republican People's Party(CHP) with 25.9% (2007:20.8%), followed by the Nationalist Action Party(MHP), which received 13%(2007:14.3%) of the votes, thus making the election threshold and securing its representation in Turkey's 550­seat parliament. The 36 independent MPs (2007:21) sponsored by the Peace and Democracy Party(BDP) will be able to form their own group in parliament. With a turnout of almost 87%(voting is compulsory in Turkey), voter participation was ution. higher than during the previous election. 78 of the 550 newly elected MPs were women, thus making up 14.2% of the total number of representatives (2007:9.2%). 45 of those female MPs belong to the AKP, 19 are members of the CHP, 11 are members of the BDP, and three are members of the MHP. In light of these results, the AKP, having won a total of 326 seats, will not have to form a coalition government with the CHP(135 seats), the MHP (53 seats), or the BDP-sponsored independent group(36 seats). However, it failed to obtain the much-anticipated three-fifths majority(330 seats) by a close margin and will thus have to cooperate with the three opposition parties in its efforts to draft a new constit. 2. Political Parties Having won the general election for the third time in a row, the AKP is one of the winners of the recent election. Its victory can be attributed to Turkey's good economic performance; about 60% of AKP voters indicated the economic situation to be the main reason for their choice. Poor immigrants in cities, the rural population, but also the emerging bourgeoisie chose economic and political stability and formed the basis of the electoral success of the AKP as the new people’s party. The AKP's electoral apparatus operated in a highly professional manner, and the juggernaut of government fostered the party's electoral success even further. Nothing, however, compared to the Prime Minister's populist skills; he continuously came up with new major projects for all the different cities and regions, thus winning over his supporters; among those plans were projects to create new commuter towns for Istanbul, construct new airports, develop Turkey's own defense industry, and even construct a second Bosphorus. These were some of the concrete promises made, which endeared Erdo ğ an to many voters. The AKP was also very savvy in winning over more conservative voters; almost all of the nationalist parties’ strongholds were won by the AKP.