Today in Turkey parliamentary elections are being held. Polling stations have already been opened in the country, voting will be held until 17.00 MSK. Approximately 56 million Turkish citizens will be able to participate in elections. They will elect 550 members of the Turkish parliament, choosing from 20 parties.
The leaders in the race are four parties: the ruling moderate conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP), the center-left Republican People's Party (RPP), the nationalist National Movement Party (NMP) and the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (PDP). To get a seat in parliament, parties must overcome a 10% barrier, RIA Novosti reports.
The undisputed favorite is the AKP (leader is Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu). According to opinion polls, the party can gain 40-45% of the votes cast. However, it is unlikely to be able to repeat the success of the last parliamentary elections in 2011, when the party received about 49% of the vote and an absolute majority in parliament.
The main intrigue of the election is the question of whether the AKP gets enough seats in parliament to form a government, or whether it will have to enter into a coalition with one of the opposition parties. Experts see only one option for a coalition with the nationalist MHP, because of the antagonism of the AKP with other opposition parties.
The main opposition party is the RPP (leader is Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu), which, according to opinion polls, can count on 25-30% of the vote. The RPP is very popular in large cities such as Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir. It tries to combine all those discontented under President Tayyip Erdogan, especially liberal intellectuals, participants in the Gezi protests in May and June of 2013.
The right-wing NMP (leader is Devlet Bahceli) can count on 14-15% of the vote. It has no clear positive program, and the main thesis of its leader is a tough and uncompromising stance on the Kurdish issue and wariness about the prospects of Turkey's EU membership.
The PDP (leader is Selahattin Demirtas), which will take part in the elections for the first time, is on the verge of the 10-percent threshold, and the possibility of getting into the parliament will be the second election intrigue. Although the party is positioning itself as pan-Turkish, during the election campaign it was not possible to get rid of its Kurdish national colors. It can count on support in the eastern provinces of the country, dominated by the Kurdish population, and its ability to overcome the 10 percent threshold is seriously in doubt among experts.
