Turks say out with the old, in with the Allah
As it looked earlier, Turkish voters have given the Justice and Development Party (AKP) a resounding victory with 34.2 percent of the vote out of 99 percent of the votes counted. The Republican People’s Party (CHP) had 19.2 percent of the vote. None of the other political parties appeared to have crossed the 10 percent threshold for gaining seats in Parliament. This means AKP can probably form a government without a coalition partner within two weeks.
All three parties in the current coalition were defeated, and ailing Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit’s party registered barely 1 percent. This was a resounding rejection of the politicians and practices that have governed Turkey for generations.
This is likely a good thing in that sense, but as I mentioned earlier, it remains to be seen if Erdogan’s AKP has truly moderated its Islamic roots and can truly be a “Muslim Democratic” party in the mold of Europe’s Christian Democrats.