Erdogan Formally Calls New Election after Deadline Passes
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Turkey’s president formally called a new election after a deadline passed for forming a new government following an inconclusive vote in June.
A statement released from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office on Monday didn’t say when the new election would be held, but the president has previously said it was likely to take place on Nov. 1.
Erdogan was expected to re-appoint Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to form an interim government during a meeting Tuesday, the Daily Star reported.
Davutoglu’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party lost its overall majority in the 550-seat parliament in June for the first time since it came to power in 2002, forcing the party to seek a coalition partner.
But the AK Party’s coalition talks with opposition parties failed to produce a government.
Erdogan, a co-founder of the AK Party, wants the party to win back an overall majority and govern alone. He is also seeking to fulfill his dream of a presidency with boosted executive powers.
He indicated in recent weeks that he was not in favor of coalition governments, but dismissed criticism he had impeded the coalition talks.
Under Turkey’s constitution, Erdogan was obliged to give the second-placed Republican People’s Party (CHP) a mandate to lead coalition talks.
But he refused to do so because the CHP’s leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu refuses to set foot in Erdogan’s controversial and vast new presidential palace.
The opposition has accused Erdogan of violating the constitution, with Kilicdaroglu blasting him for seeking to stage a “civilian coup.”
The opposition CHP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) have refused to take part in a short-term election government.
This forces Davutoglu to hold talks with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) – which he has accused of being a front for Kurdish militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – as well as independent figures to form an interim government.
It remains to be seen if November’s polls will see the AK Party increase its share of vote and win back an outright majority, with many analysts skeptical that the results will be much changed from June 7.
Marc Pierini, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, said that the AK Party has a chance of winning back its simple majority but would be unable to win the three-fifths of seats that are needed to call a referendum to change the constitution and give Erdogan the broader powers he craves.
“With 258 seats, the AK Party was 18 seats short of a single-party government. On Nov. 1, they may – may – recoup that loss and be back in power alone,” he said.
“But 258 was very, very far from the 330 seats qualified [three-fifths] majority, so the executive presidency reform is dead in the water,” Pierini said.
The elections will come at a time of a dual offensive against Kurdish militants and ISIL extremists in Iraq and Syria, with some critics blaming Erdogan for operating a “war machine” to seek political gains for his AK Party.
A spike in violence between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants has nullified a 2013 cease-fire with the outlawed PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community.
At least 814 Kurdish militants have been killed in Turkey and in neighboring Iraq as a result of Turkish army operations against the PKK from July 22 to Aug. 24, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
The data, based on security sources, is not possible to independently verify.
At least 60 members of the Turkish security forces have been killed in PKK attacks, Anatolia added.
Two Turkish soldiers and a policeman were killed Monday in new attacks blamed on PKK militants in the country’s restive southeast, officials said.
