TurkeyÂ’s general election campaign enters its final stretch on Monday with the outgoing government confident it will increase its share of the vote but facing a much reduced majority in the new parliament.Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister and leader of the Justice and Development party (AKP), predicted at the weekend his party would win 40 per cent of the popular vote next Sunday, and get between 310 and 315 seats in the 550-seat parliament. That would be sufficient to allow the AKP, which has its roots in political Islam, to form another single-party administration.
Analysts say this is investorsÂ’ preferred outcome. Despite the controversial circumstances in which the election was called, TurkeyÂ’s financial markets have remained steady in anticipation of another term for the centre-right, pro-business party.
Mr Erdogan called the election early after he failed to get Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister who has past links to TurkeyÂ’s Islamist movement, elected by parliament to the symbolically secular post of president.
| That's after the generals let it be known they were growing concerned about the Islamacists. More on the leftist woman challenging Erdogan for his parliamentary seat here. |