Turkey’s Erdogan keeps parliamentary majority
Erdogan’s rulling AKP however lacks mandate to make key legal change
TURKEY’S re-elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has retained his majority in the parliament, according to the official results of the May 14 elections, but his party fell short of the number of seats it needs in order to make key legal changes.
Erdogan’s ruling AKP and its allies have a majority, with 323 of the 600 seats in parliament, election authority YSK head Ahmet Yener said in Ankara on Tuesday.
Erdogan would need 360 seats in order to call a referendum and 400 to make constitutional changes. He can still pass some legislative changes by presidential decree, though, under his powers as executive president since 2018.
The parliamentary elections were held two weeks ago, but the announcement of the results was delayed due to numerous objections.
Erdogan’s AKP has the most seats with 268, which is 27 fewer than in the previous term. The MHP, the nationalist party which partners with the AKP, won 50 seats while the Islamist Yeniden Refah has five.
The second strongest party is the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) with 169 seats.
The CHP head, and joint opposition candidate for the presidency, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu,
was defeated by Erdogan in the run-off presidential election on Sunday.
The second largest opposition party, the pro-Kurdish HDP, which ran under the sister Green Left Party due to an outstanding legal case, lost six seats and has now 61 in the new parliament.
The new lawmakers are expected to be sworn in on Friday, according to local media. A new cabinet has not yet been appointed while Erdogan was reportedly in talks with former economy tsar Mehmet Simsek for a key post to help mend the nation’s ailing economy.