Turkey’s strongman president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, tightened his grip on power decisively on Sunday as his ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) swept back to single-party government with a convincing win in national elections.
The high-stakes vote, Turkey’s second in five months, took place in a climate of mounting tension and violence following an inconclusive June poll in which the conservative, Islamic-leaning AKP failed to secure an outright majority for the first time since coming to power in 2002.
With almost 90% of the votes counted, the party was on 50.3%, according to state broadcaster TRT. That would give it about 325 seats in the 550-seat parliament, comfortably ahead of its three main rival parties and easily enough to form a government on its own.
The prime minister and AKP leader, Ahmet Davutoğlu tweeted simply: “Elhamdulillah”, or “Thanks be to God”. » | Jon Henley, Kareem Shaheen in Ankara and Constanze Letsch in Diyarbakir | Sunday, November 1, 2015
KRONEN ZEITUNG: Türkei: Absolute für "Sultan" Erdogan: Recep Tayyip Erdogan hat bei den Parlamentswahlen in der Türkei mit seiner islamisch-konservativen Regierungspartei AKP die absolute Mandatsmehrheit erreicht. Die Konfliktstrategie des "Sultans" ist damit voll aufgegangen - er hatte sich als einziger Garant von Stabilität dargestellt. Nun will Erdogan eine Verfassungsänderung für ein Präsidialsystem, in der alle Macht in seiner Hand gebündelt ist. Oppositionskreise sprechen von Wahlschwindel. » | Kronen Zeitung/AG/kal | Sonntag, 1. November 2015
