|
01 April 2009 ANKARA: Turkey’s Islamist-rooted
ruling party won an easy victory in local polls but
saw its popularity shrink for the first time in what
analysts said yesterday was a warning to the
government to focus on the economy and compromise with
secularist opponents.
The Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has
won all four elections in the past seven years, took
38.9 percent of the vote, almost eight points less
than its previous electoral showing in 2007, according
to unofficial results, with 99.6 percent of the vote
counted.
“The ballot box issues a warning to the AKP,” the
Vatan daily headlined, while Aksam said the party’s
support was “eroded” at the ballot box.
The secularist main opposition Republican People’s
Party came second with 23.2 percent of the vote,
followed by the Nationalist Action Party with 16.1
percent.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the result
was “a fresh vote of confidence” in the AKP, but
conceded he was not satisfied with the figures. “We
will study the results closely and ... see why we have
ended in this position,” he said, signaling a possible
cabinet reshuffle.
The AKP won more than 41 percent in the last
municipal polls in 2004, followed by a sweeping
46.6-percent victory in general elections in 2007.
Erdogan convened a Cabinet meeting yesterday and
was to discuss the election results with AKP leaders
later in the day. Sunday’s polls saw the party lose
local administrations in several major cities, while
retaining the capital Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey’s
largest metropolis, but only after tough battles with
the opposition.
It also suffered a crushing defeat in Diyarbakir,
the central city of the mainly Kurdish southeast, at
the hands of the Kurdish Democratic Society Party.
“The elections have been a success for the AKP ...
but its perpetual upward trend has been broken,”
political scientist Sencer Ayata said. “This brings a
fundamental change in the political climate in the
country.” |
Save
Print
Add Comments To This Story