Turkish Ruling Party Appears to Lose Majority in Parliament
AKP looks to be heading toward its worst general-election result in a decade
With more than 90% of the ballots counted, the governing party, known as AKP, was on course to win 42% of the vote, falling short of the 276 of the 550 seats in parliament needed to form a single-party government, according to partial results published by state-run broadcaster TRT.
The provisional count also showed the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, or HDP, securing 10.6% support—likely propelling it past a 10% electoral threshold to enter parliament. The HDP’s performance will ultimately determine the distribution of seats in the 550-member Ankara parliament and Turkey’s political future.
A total 56.6 million Turkish citizens, including 2.9 million expatriates in 54 countries around the world, were eligible to cast votes. The participation rate abroad was more than 35%, while some 85% of domestic voters took to the polls, in line with historic averages.