Friday, December 28, 2007

The Recent Turkish Elections: Why Is the EU Applauding?

"The Recent Turkish Elections: Why Is the EU Applauding?
While the EU has generally applauded the recent elections in Turkey as a victory for democracy, many within Turkey are convinced otherwise. The elections were won by the AKP, a religious party, which took 62 percent of the parliamentary seats (341 of 550 seats) with 46.7 percent of the vote. All electoral systems are overly generous to the party with the largest (plurality) vote. The high threshold of ten percent in the Turkish system is particularly so. Apart from questions of the degree to which the results reflect the popular will; however, the elections have raised fears that Turkey may be jettisoning its secular constitutional system."

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