Erdogan said the result “delivered an important message for the PKK: oppression and bloodshed cannot coexist with democracy”.
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Fighting between Turkey’s security forces and Kurdish rebels has left hundreds of people dead and shattered an already-fragile peace process. They gave a resounding thumbs up to Davutoglu and the AKP, with 59.7 percent of the votes.
In Turkey, the government holds most power but the president can veto laws, veto appointments of officials, appoint judges and is commander in chief of the military. Erdogan – the AKP’s founder and Turkey’s prime minister from 2003-14, who was elected president in August 2014 – has been seeking to expand the powers of the presidency.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the U.S. was “deeply concerned that media outlets and individual journalists critical of the government were subject to pressure and intimidation during the campaign”.
However, Turkey finds itself facing a variety of new challenges that it simply can’t tackle alone.
According to pundits, social and political commentators, both in Turkey across the world, AK Party was expected to struggle to get a working majority, leaving the party and the country in the same parlous state as it was after the early summer polls.
The threat of further jihadist violence also overshadowed the poll after a string of attacks blamed on IS jihadists, including twin suicide bombings at an Ankara peace rally last month that killed 102 people – the bloodiest in Turkey’s modern history.
The ETF that tracks the market performance of Turkish equities, Ishares Msci Turkey Inv Market Index Fd (NYSE: TUR) soared higher by almost 10 percent Monday morning.
With the migrant crisis in Europe deepening, Brussels has sought Erdogan’s help in controlling the flood of refugees landing on Greece’s shores from Turkey.
Turnout in the election was about 87 percent among the 54 million people eligible to vote at more than 175,000 polling stations.
The conservative, ruling AKP will only have 34 female lawmakers in the legislature out of 317 seats secured by the party – just one in 10 of the party’s deputies.
The nationalist MHP were the big losers of the election.
Hamzaoglu noted that the election results benefits Turkish rates and equities, especially banks.
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The results could still change significantly, with counting not yet completed in a few of the largest cities. New elections were called after failed attempts to form a viable coalition. That now appears to have been a good bet.
