Turkey held its widely anticipated parliamentary and presidential election on May 14 with ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) emerging victorious from the most highly contested elections in the party’s two-decade reign.
Ahmet Yener, the head of the Turkish electoral commission told reporters in Ankara that according to the final results of the elections, AKP gained 268 seats, followed by the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) 169 seats, pro-Kurdish Green Left Party 61 seats, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) 50 seats, IYI party 43 seats, New Welfare Party (Yeniden Refah) 5 seats and Turkey’s Worker’s Party gained 4 seats.
According to the results, the AKP-led People’s Alliance has the parliamentary majority at 323 seats, followed by the opposition bloc’s Nation Alliance at 212 seats, while the Labor and Freedom Alliance garnered 65 seats.
In the 2018 parliamentary elections, only five parties were able to cross the 10 percent threshold to enter the parliament, AKP, and ally MHP won the parliamentary majority racking up over 53 percent of the votes.
Even with maintaining its status as the biggest party in Turkey, AKP has lost seats in comparison to 295 seats in the 2018 parliamentary elections, same goes for the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), which entered the election as the Green Left Party, as they lost 6 seats.
AKP’s win in the elections solidifies their two-decade-long dominance over the country after coming to power in 2002. The party overcame the challenges faced in the form of dire economic conditions, soaring inflation, local currency losing value, and the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that shook the country in February.
