'Moderate Islamic' AKP Wins Turkish Elections

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 04, 2002

'Moderate Islamic' AKP Wins Turkish Elections

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Turkey's "moderate Islamic" Justice and Development Party (AKP) has overwhelmingly won Sunday's Turkish parliamentary elections, defeating major rival Republican People's Party (CHP) with a wide margin.

With 98 percent of the votes counted, the AKP secured 34.1 percent of votes in the elections, public television said early Monday.

The tallies have handed the newly-built AKP about 361 seats in the 550-seat Grand National Assembly (parliament), enabling it to form a single-party government under the Turkish Constitution as it won an absolute victory in the elections.

The CHP came in second with 19.5 percent of the votes, or 179 parliament seats.

No other parties won more than 10 percent of the votes, the threshold needed to get a parliamentary seat.

The former three-party government coalition led by outgoing prime minister Bulent Ecevit was wiped off the political picture.

The ailing Ecevit conceded defeat as the unofficial results showed that his Democratic Left Party (DSP) and its two coalition partners were doomed to lose all their parliamentary seats.

DSP netted only about one percent of the ballot, a devastating blow to end the 77-year-old Ecevit's four-decade political career.

The AKP, which was established last year on the ashes of a banned Islamist movement, benefited from a strong protest vote sparked by a serious economic crisis that has left about million jobless.

At a huge celebration at his party's headquarters, AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan told supporters: "We will not spend our time dizzy with victory. We will build a Turkey where common sense prevails."

The official election results are expected to be announced by the Supreme Election Board on Nov. 10.

The new parliament will convene on Nov. 15 and President AhmedNecdet Sezer will designate the leader of the winning party to form the government on Nov. 16.

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