November 2015 Turkish general election

November 2015 Turkish general election

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All 550 seats in the Grand National Assembly 276 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	85.23% ( 1.31pp)
Majority party Minority party   Leader Ahmet Davutoğlu Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu Party AK Party CHP Last election 40.87%, 258 seats 24.95%, 132 seats Seats won 317 134 Seat change 59 2 Popular vote 23,681,926 12,111,812 Percentage 49.50% 25.32% Swing 8.63pp 0.37pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader Selahattin Demirtaş Figen Yüksekdağ Devlet Bahçeli Party HDP MHP Last election 13.12%, 80 seats, 16.29%, 80 seats Seats won 59 40 Seat change 21 40 Popular vote 5,148,085 5,694,136 Percentage 10.76% 11.90% Swing 2.36pp 4.39pp
Most voted-for party by province (top) and district (bottom)[1]      AKP (63)        CHP (6)        MHP (0)        HDP (12)
Prime Minister before election Ahmet Davutoğlu AK Party Elected Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu AK Party

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November 2015 Turkish general election
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General elections were held in Turkey on 1 November 2015 to elect 550 members to the Grand National Assembly. They were the 25th general elections in the History of the Republic of Turkey and elected the country's 26th Parliament. The election resulted in the Justice and Development Party (AKP) regaining a parliamentary majority following a 'shock' victory, having lost it five months earlier in the June 2015 general elections.^[2][3][4]

The snap elections were called by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 24 August 2015 after the June election resulted in a hung parliament and coalition negotiations broke down. Although the election, dubbed as a 're-run' of the inconclusive June election by President Erdoğan, was the 7th early election in the history of Turkish politics, it was the first to be overseen by an interim election government. The election rendered the 25th Parliament of Turkey, elected in June, the shortest in the Grand National Assembly's history, lasting for just five months and being in session for a total of 33 hours.^[5]

The elections took place amid security concerns after ceasefire negotiations between the government and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels collapsed in July, causing a resumption of separatist conflict in the predominantly Kurdish south-east of the country. Close to 150 security personnel lost their lives in the ensuing conflict, causing tensions between Turkish and Kurdish nationalists and raising security concerns over whether an election could have been peacefully conducted in the south-east, where conditions were described as a 'worsening bloodshed' by observers.^[6][7][8] Critics accused the government of deliberately sparking the conflict in order to win back votes it had lost to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and decrease the turnout in Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) strongholds.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} The election was preceded by the deadliest terrorist attack in Turkey's modern history, after two suicide bombers killed 102 people attending a peace rally in central Ankara.^[14] Numerous political parties, notably the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), ended up either entirely cancelling or significantly toning down their election campaigns following the attack. Fehmi Demir, the leader of the Rights and Freedoms Party (HAK-PAR), was killed in a traffic accident six days before the election.^[15]

Amid speculation that the election would likely result in a second hung parliament, pollsters and commentators were found to have drastically underestimated the AKP vote, which bore resemblance to their record 2011 election victory.^[16][17] With 49.5% of the vote and 317 seats, the party won a comfortable majority of 84, while the CHP retained its main opposition status with 134 seats and 25.4% of the vote. The results were widely seen as a 'shock' win for the AKP and was hailed as a massive personal victory for President Erdoğan.^[18] The MHP and the HDP both saw decreases in support, with both hovering dangerously close to the 10% election threshold needed to win seats. The MHP, which was seen to have been punished for its perceivably unconstructive stance since June, halved their parliamentary representation from 80 to 40 and won 11.9% of the vote, while the HDP came third in terms of seats with 59 MPs despite coming fourth in terms of votes with 10.7%.^[19] The elections were broadly regarded as free and fair but were overshadowed by the violence between the Turkish state and the PKK, with concern that the electoral victory may embolden President Erdoğan to further crackdown upon free speech.^[20]