Islamist and Right Parties are the Winners

As foreseen, the metropol cities such as Istanbul and Ankara remain in the hands of the AKP, whereas the third biggest city of Turkey, Izmir, remains under the management of the CHP.

However, the AKP conquered the industrial city of Gaziantep, a fortress of the CHP for a long time, and the city of Antalya, electoral province of the CHP leader Deniz Baykal. The results of the CHP are regarded as a defeat for the CHP and in particular for its leader Baykal.

In general, the Islamist family, represented by four political parties, rose its total percentage to 46.67%, in particular because of the rise of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of the Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the Felicity Party (SP) of the former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan.

As for the extreme-right, represented by five political parties, it recorded a considerable rise with a total of 24.46 % of the votes. Two traditional parties of extreme-right, the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and the Great Union Party (BBP), obtained respectively 10.50% and 1.15% of the votes.

This time, the extreme-right-hand is reinforced with the new orientation of the True Path Party (DYP) which obtained 10,20% of the votes.

After the departure of its former chairwoman Tansu Ciller following the last electoral defeat at the polls, this old center-right party had chosen as chairman Mehmet Agar, a former minister who had to resign of this post because of the revelations concerning his complicity with extreme-right killers and the Turkish Mafia.

The MHP and the DYP will be able to enter the National Assembly at the next poll if they can maintain their current score above the national threshold of 10% for legislative elections.

Another extreme-right party, the Young Party (GP) is the only loser in this group because of a campaign carried out by the AKP and supported by the great media against the family of its president Cem Uzan.

After the DYP's slipping to the extreme-right and the new fall of the ANAP, the center-right has practically disappeared from the political scene of Turkey.

As for the left-wing parties, the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP), which participated to the elections on the list of the People's Social Democrat Party (SHP) in alliance with some small left-wing parties (ODP, EMEP, SDP), confirmed his rule in the Kurdish cities Diyarbakir, Batman, Hakkari, Sirnak, and Tunceli, but it lost some other Kurdish cities to the profit of the AKP.

The SHP, which gathered in several cities the candidates of this left-wing alliance on its list, did not succeed to make elected even its own president Murat Karayalcin, former mayor of Ankara, in this capital city.

Below is the distribution of the votes according to semi-official results (15 pm GMT) in comparison with the results of the 2002 legislative elections between brackets. (Info-Türk, March 29, 2004)

Islamist (4 parties):

2004: 46.67% (2002: 37.47%) = + 9.20%

AKP (Justice and Development Party): 42.20% (34.28%) +7.92%

SP (Prosperity Party): 3.96% (2.49%) + 1.47

BTP (Independent Turkey Party): 0.50% (0.48%) +0.02%

MP (Party of the Nation): 0.01% (0.22%) - 0.21%

Extreme right (5 parties):

2004: 24.46 (2002: 16.63%) = + 7.83%

MHP ((Nationalist Action Party): 10.50% (8.36%) + 2.14%

DYP (Correct Way Party)*: 10.20% (9.54%) + 0.66%

GP (Young Party):2.60 % (7.25%) - 4.65%

BBP (Great Union Party): 1.15% (1.02%) + 0.13%

ATP (Enlightened Turkey Party): 0.01% (absent in 2002) + 0.01%

*) DYP was in the center-right in 2002

Center right (3 parties):

2004: 2.50% (2002: 14.95%) = - 12.45%

ANAP (Motherland Party): 2.45% (5.13%) - 2.68%

LDP (Liberal Democrat Party): 0.01% (0.28%) - 0.27%

DP (Democrat Party): 0.04% (absent in 2002) + 0.04%

Social Democrats and Ataturkist (4 parties):

2004: 20.41% (2002: 22.27%) = - 1.86%

CHP (Republican People's Party): 17.80% (19.39%) -1.59%

DSP (Democratic Left Party): 2.16% (1.22%) + 0.94%

YTP (New Turkey Party): 0.21% (1.15%) - 0.94%

IP (Workers' Party): 0.24% (0.51%) - 0.27%

Left (4 parties)

2004: 5.14% (2002: 6.75%) = - 1.61%

SHP (People's Social Democrat Party): 4.80% (DEHAP: 6.22% in 2002) - 1.42%

ODP (Freedom and Solidarity Party): 0.04% (0.34%)- 0.30%

TKP (Communist Party of Turkey): 0.25% (0.19%) + 0.06%

EMEP (Labour Party): 0.05% (absent in 2002) + 0.05% (YE)