Erdogan returns to govern Turkey alone and will therefore be able to carry out his project of a reform in the presidential sense. In early elections, when the count of ballots is already over 80%, the conservative Islamic party for Justice and Development (AKP) gets almost 51% of the votes. The People's Republican Party (CHP, social democrat, main opposition voice) instead obtains 24% of the preferences, while the progressive pro-Kurdish party HDP (People's Democratic Party) stands at 10,46%, poised on the threshold 10% barrier. Finally, the nationalists of the Mhp party stop at 11,7%.
A picture to be confirmed and clarified with definitive data, but which promises the AKP about 320 seats in the new Turkish Grand National Assembly, Ankara's unicameral parliament: well over the absolute majority which takes place at 276 seats (half of the deputies plus one ). For Erdogan this is a triumphal redemption after the blow of the vote last June, which for the first time since 2002 - when he came to power - saw him deprived of the majority necessary for a one-sided government.
Now, after a campaign focused on issues of security and stability, after months of tensions and renewed violence in the South-East, after bloody attacks such as those in Suruk and Ankara, Turkish voters are back to voting for the "Sultan", undisputed strong man, albeit criticized by many as director of the very strong polarization of Turkish society.
Today's vote strongly penalizes the pro-Kurds of the HDP, after the great debut last June (13% of the votes) which had turned into a spanner in the presidential cart. Leader Selahattin Demirtas, a rising star in Turkish politics, has been constantly attacked by the AKP. And after the kamikaze attack on a rally organized in Ankara to ask for peace with the Kurdish PKK, he interrupted his rallies.
In the meantime, the social democratic opposition of the CHP seems substantially stable compared to June, while the nationalists of the MHP are down. In essence, the AKP would have drained votes from nationalists and HDP. In Istanbul, where the HDP was particularly strong in June, today the pro-Kurds (with 90% of the ballots counted) have remained slightly below 10% of the votes.
