Turkey re-elects Erdogan with landslide victory
With more than 95% of the vote counted, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) was leading with 50.3% of the vote for a third straight win, according to results on CNN Turk television.
It was the party’s highest electoral score since it came to power in 2002.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) was second with 25.9%, followed by the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) with 13.1%.
More than 50 million people were eligible to vote, out of a population of some 73 million.
The AKP owes its enduring popularity mostly to economic success and improved public services following years of financial instability that haunted Turkey under shaky coalition governments in the past. Under the AKP, the economy grew by 8.9% in 2010, outpacing global recovery. Per capita income has doubled to $10,079.
His economic credits aside, Erdogan — once the driving force of EU-sought reforms — has come under fire for autocratic tendencies and growing intolerance of criticism.
With dozens of journalists in jail, the opposition is alarmed over creeping restrictions on the Internet and an unprecedented outbreak of compromising wiretaps and videos of opposition figures circulating online. Sex tapes forced 10 top MHP members to quit the election race, following a similar scandal last year that saw the veteran CHP leader resign.
