TURKEY: Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul vote in parliamentary elections

Record ID: 217370

  • Title: TURKEY: Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul vote in parliamentary elections
  • Date: 13th June 2011
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JUNE 12, 2011) (AGENCY POOL) ( * BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) VARIOUS OF TURKISH PRIME MINISTER TAYYIP ERDOGAN AND HIS WIFE EMINE ERDOGAN SHAKING HANDS WITH ELECTORAL OFFICIALS ERDOGAN GETTING BALLOT PAPER AND ENVELOPE AND ENTERING VOTING BOOTH EMINE ERDOGAN STANDING VARIOUS OF PRIME MINISTER ERDOGAN CASTING HIS VOTE ENVELOPE DROPPING INTO BALLOT BOX
  • Embargoed: 28th June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey, Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA323O3AQ8VHUI9KWW2SZPA25H1
  • Story Text: Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan cast his vote on Sunday (June 12) in a parliamentary election that is expected to return the AK Party leader to office for a third consecutive term and could give him a mandate to rewrite the constitution.
    Opinion polls have shown Erdogan set to win four more years of single-party rule in the nation that straddles Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
    Casting his vote at a primary school being used as a polling station on the Asian side of the Bosphorus straits in Istanbul, Erdogan said the election was the time for the people to speak.
    "We ended a hectic but cheerful election campaign yesterday evening as of six pm. We spoke during the rallies, now it's time for our people to say their word. They will decide today with their free will who is going to run this country for the next four years. Of course, this will be a litmus test for us. This will be the most honourable and respected decision," Erdogan told the television cameras, as his headscarved wife and daughter stood nearby.
    Erdogan's support has been built on his success in creating a booming economy and in ending decades of chaotic coalitions, military coups and failed international financial bailouts.
    The only doubt hanging over Sunday's vote was about the margin of victory.
    Erdogan needs more than a simple majority to be certain of pushing through plans for a new constitution to replace one written in 1982, two years after a military coup.
    The prime minister, whose party evolved from banned Islamist movements, says the new charter will be based on democratic and pluralistic principles that will bring Turkey closer to EU standards.
    "The information I have received so far suggests the voting across the country is taking place peacefully, and again according to the information I received, it seems this will be the most participated in election ever," said Erdogan told journalists outside the polling station.
    Casting his vote in Turkish capital of Ankara President Abdullah Gul urged all citizens to participate in the election. .
    While foreign investors traditionally have seen AK as the most market-friendly party, Erdogan's critics say he has an authoritarian streak.
    They fear he will use his growing power to switch to a more presidential system of government, with an eye on becoming president himself in the years ahead.
    Opponents also point to rampant use of wiretaps by state agencies, the detention of journalists critical of the government, nepotism and a widening gap between rich and poor.
    AK, a socially conservative party, held 331 of the 550 seats in the last parliament.
    Polls show it scoring the same or more.
    At least 330 seats would give AK the power to call a referendum on rewriting the constitution.
    If it gets more than a two-thirds majority, it will be able to change the constitution without resorting to a plebiscite.
    The Republican People's Party (CHP), the party of Turkey's once-dominant secularist, Westernised elites, has been revitalised under new leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
    Kilicdaroglu has dropped the CHP's old scaremongering tactics of accusing AK of wanting to turn Turkey into an Iran-style Islamic state and has focused his campaign on human rights and inequality, while warning of Erdogan's growing power.
    Opinion polls put support for the CHP at 25-30 percent.
    The performance of independents fielded by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) could prove key to AK's margin of victory.
    The outcome of Sunday's vote will have repercussions outside Turkey, a NATO member and U.S. ally that has forged stronger ties with fellow Muslim neighbours.
    Analysts have warned the new government will face sobering economic challenges.
    The current account deficit is ballooning, fiscal policy needs tightening to cool overheating and youth unemployment is high in a country where the average age is 28.
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