Erdogan AKP Party Storms Back In Turkish Election
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Zaman, Nov. 2, 2015
"Alone in power," writes Turkish daily Zaman on its Monday front page, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) swept back to victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections.
In a defeat for political moderates, secularists and Kurds, the AKP will return to governing the country alone after winning 49.4% of the vote, enough to secure an outright parliamentary majority. It will still need the support of representatives from other parties to execute Erdogan's plans for a new constitution, which would replace the country's parliamentary system with a presidential one.
According to Zaman, local media are reporting allegations of vote rigging.
The voting was marred by clashes between police and supporters of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), whose surprising rise in June's election had prevented the AKP from obtaining a majority. The campaign itself was also marked by widespread violence and terrorist attacks, as well as police raids on opposition TV stations days before the vote.