What's next for Turkey?
With the Justice and Development Party losing its parliamentary majority in the general elections, a viable coalition is now unlikely and all signs point to a political crisis.
By noon Turkish time on June 8, 96.6% of the ballots in the more than174,000 polling stations in Turkey’s parliamentary elections were counted. The results are in: The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has lost its parliamentary majority and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the new darling of Turkish pro-democracy forces and liberals, has passed the undemocratic 10% threshold with a 13.1% share of the vote.
The distribution of seats in the new Turkish parliament is as follows:
- 258 seats for the Islamist AKP (40.9%)
- 132 seats for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) (25%)
- 80 seats for the Turkish Nationalist Action Party (MHP) (16.3%)
- 80 seats for the pro-Kurdish HDP (13.1%)
Turnout was very high, with 86% of the electorate voting. This means some 3% more voters participated this year, compared with 83.16% in the 2011 general elections.
In the general election of 2011, the AKP won 327 seats with a 49.83% share of the vote, while the CHP won 135 seats with 25.98% and the MHP won 53 seats with 13.01%. The HDP did not exist at the time, and 35 pro-Kurdish independents were elected.
