June 2015 Justice and Development Party election campaign

All Together for a New Turkey
Hep Birlikte Yeni Türkiye
Campaigned forTurkey June 2015 general election
CandidateAhmet Davutoğlu (as party leader)
550 parliamentary candidates
AffiliationJustice and Development Party (AKP)
StatusCame first with 258 members elected, but lost their parliamentary majority
HeadquartersAnkara, Turkey
Key peopleAhmet Davutoğlu, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
SloganHep Birlikte Yeni Türkiye (All Together for a New Turkey)
ChantDaima Adalet, Daima Kalkınma (Justice forever, Development forever)

The Justice and Development Party election campaign of June 2015 was the official election campaign of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) for the June 2015 general election. This was the fourth general election contested by the AKP, which was founded in 2001 and swept to power in a landslide victory in 2002. This was the first election contested by the AKP's new leader, Ahmet Davutoğlu, who was elected leader in September 2014 after the party's former leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected as the President of Turkey in August 2014.

According to opinion polls, the party was widely expected to come first for their fourth general election in a row. However, this was the first election in which there was a serious chance of the party losing their majority in Parliament, since the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was expected to surpass the 10% election threshold and gain seats as a political party for the first time.

The AKP's leader Ahmet Davutoğlu announced that is party was targeting 55% of the vote, having won 49.83% in the 2011 general election. The party was widely expected to target 330 seats (a three-fifths majority) in Parliament, which would have been enough to submit constitutional changes to a referendum. One of the AKP's main election pledges was to rewrite the Constitution of Turkey. This would have paved the way for the disestablishment of the existing parliamentary system of government and its replacement by an executive presidency, another election pledge that was strongly supported by President Erdoğan. Erdoğan himself, despite legally being required to remain neutral, implicitly placed the AKP's target higher at 400 MPs, a feat that would only theoretically be achievable if both the HDP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) fell below the 10% threshold.

The AKP campaign was widely controversial for alleged misuse of state funds to finance their campaign, as well as for the involvement of the AKP's former leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Despite being constitutionally required to exercise political neutrality, Erdoğan was accused of covertly campaigning for the AKP by holding 'public opening rallies' throughout the different provinces in addition to the AKP's standard electoral rallies. The public opening rallies were often criticised for being a farce to cover-up Erdoğan's covert election campaign, since many foundations and infrastructure projects that were part of the public opening rallies were found to have been officially opened in prior ceremonies or non-existent in the first place.

The final results gave the AKP 40.87% of the vote, almost 9% less than their 2011 result of 49.83%. The party won 258 seats with the HDP taking much of their former support from the south-eastern regions, resulting in Turkey's first hung parliament since 1999. The party was tasked with forming a coalition government, with negotiations eventually proving unsuccessful and leading to a new snap election being called for November 2015.