Turkey’s Right Rises Again
Turkey election celebration
SOURCE: AP/Hussein Malla
By Max Hoffman and Michael Werz | Tuesday, November 3, 2015
The ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, won back an outright majority in the Turkish parliament on November 1 with a sweeping and unexpected victory in the country’s repeat parliamentary election. The AKP, which draws much of its support from Turkey’s working class and religious conservatives, won 49.4 percent of the overall vote. This will likely translate to 316 seats in the 550-member parliament—enough to form a single-party government but short of the 330 seats needed to put constitutional changes to a nationwide referendum, a longtime goal of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
More:Turkey’s Right Rises Again | Center for American Progress