Turkey's ruling AKP wins elections for 3rd term
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Founded in 2001 by former members of several other parties including the banned Islamist Virtue Party, the AKP came into office in 2002, just after economic crises that marked the 1990s of Turkey.
Led by Erdogan, it has achieved an unchallengeable economic record while carrying out EU-inspired reforms to shake off coup era dust and kudos-winning diplomacy in its region.
Under the AKP rule, Turkey became the world's 17th largest economy and rebounded from the global recession last year with an 8.9 percent growth.
The AKP also succeeded to open EU accession talks in 2005, which boosted economic, social and political reforms attracting foreign investment to the country. Meanwhile, reforms diminishing the Turkish army's role in political life have brought political stability.
In foreign policy, Erdogan's harsh criticism towards Israel has increased his popularity not only among Turks, but also in the Arab world.
The opposition accuses the AKP of shifting capital to the pro- government circles and broadening the wealth gap. They also worry about AKP's growing intolerance of critics, especially increasing numbers of journalists detained under the AKP rule.
The government said the journalists were arrested for criminal cases, not for their writings.
"Figures showed that center-right votes of Turkey went to AKP," Fikret Bila, a leading Turkish columnist, told CNNTurk news channel on Sunday.
The AKP had put its efforts into winning nationalist votes in its campaign and it contributed to increasing its ratio, Prof. Deniz Ulku Aribogan, Bahcesehir University rector, told CNNTurk.
The 325 seats the AKP is set to win out of 550 is slightly below the number required to re-write Turkey's constitution, which the ruling party pursued as an election pledge. But with that many seats, the AKP only needs a few opposition deputies' support to amend the charter.
The making of a new constitution requires at least 330 votes of deputies in the Turkish parliament. If the number of votes is between 330 and 367, the draft is automatically taken to a referendum. If the number reaches 367, it will be passed without the approval of a referendum.
To soothe concerns over lack of compromise, Erdogan has said all political parties and social groups will be part of the drafting of the new constitution.
The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which had to run its candidates as independents in order to overcome the 10 percent electoral threshold, increased its seats in the parliament. The BDP-supported 61 independent candidates were expected to have occupy about 32 parliamentary seats.
After Sunday's elections, Turkish parliament also had its first Christian deputy named Erol Dora, who ran for the BDP in southeast Mardin province of Turkey.
Among over 50 million eligible voters, 38.7 million Turkish people went to ballot boxes on Sunday to elect 550 lawmakers out of 7,492 candidates from 15 political parties and 203 independent candidates.
In the last general elections in 2007, the AKP garnered 46.5 percent of votes, higher than 34.3 percent in 2002, and took 341 seats in parliament, followed by the CHP, which won 20.7 percent and 112 seats. The MHP got 14.3 percent and 71 seats.
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