Poll upset for Turkish premier

Early results tonight showed a party with Islamic roots leading in today’s Turkish elections.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit’s Democratic Left Party was faring so poorly in the voting that the premier was unlikely to retain his seat in parliament if the voting trend continued.

With 8.2% of the total electorate’s vote counted, the Justice and Development Party was taking 35% of the vote, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Its rival Republican People’s Party was taking 19% of the vote and coming in second.

No other party has more than 10% of the vote, the threshold that parties must cross to enter parliament.

The early results came from polling stations throughout the country and were roughly consistent with results in pre-election polls.

The elections come amid the country’s worst economic crisis since the Second World War and voters had been expected to show little sympathy for Ecevit and his three-party coalition government.

Voting at the country’s 172,000 balloting stations ended this afternoon.

The Justice and Development Party was established last year by lawmakers from a banned pro-Islamic party.

The party has tried to distance itself from its Islamic roots, with some supporters calling it a “Muslim Democratic” party, after the Christian Democrats in Europe.

The party says it will concentrate on social welfare, support Turkey’s European Union membership bid and has hinted that it would support a US-led operation in Iraq if it has U.N. approval.

But many in the secular establishment are extremely wary of the party’s Islamic roots and fear that it might clash with the staunchly pro-secular military. That instability could come as the United States considers war in neighbouring Iraq and Turkey begins to recover from a crushing economic slump that has left two million unemployed.

The staunchly secular military has led three coups in Turkey.