Turkish Government Agrees to Call Early Elections

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, July 17, 2002

Turkish Government Agrees to Call Early Elections

Turkey's three-way coalition government on Tuesday agreed to call early elections on Nov. 3, according to an official statement.

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Turkey's three-way coalition government on Tuesday agreed to call early elections on Nov. 3, according to an official statement.

In a written statement issued after a government meeting, the three coalition parties said they have reached agreement to advancegeneral elections to Nov. 3 this year from originally scheduled April 2004.

The statement came after the government lost its majority in parliament with six more Turkish legislators quitting earlier in the day.

The coalition government, which came to power following elections in April 1999, now has only 275 seats in the 550-seat parliament following the mass defection of 59 Democratic Left Party(DLP) lawmakers since a week ago.

Both of DLP's coalition partners, the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and the Motherland Party, had urged early elections despite the resistance by ailing Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, who vowed tostay on until the loss of the government's majority in parliament.

Ecevit, 77, is pressed to step down after his health deteriorated in the past two months and the bickering of his eurocentric DLP and the far-right MHP worsened over reforms demanded by the European Union.

MHP is firmly opposed to abolishing death penalty and granting minority Kurds cultural rights such as broadcast in their own language, as being required by the European Union.

Many DLP members are seeking to force MHP, the current largest party in parliament with 127 seats, out of the three-year coalitiongovernment so as to push forward with the EU-oriented reforms.

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