International

Provisional results of the Turkish parliamentary elections indicate that left Kurdish party HDP has succeeded in exceeding the 10% minimum threshold for representation.

"The first counts indicate that HDP could have seventy-five seats in the 550 strong Turkish Great Chamber," says SP Senator Tiny Kox. "The AK Party of President Erdoğan and premier Davutoğlu remains far and away the biggest party with more than 40% of the votes, but it seems unlikely that it will win an absolute majority, let alone the three-fifths of the seats it needs to change the electoral system from a parliamentary system to one which would give more power to President Erdoğan. That certainly won’t happen, if the trend continues." Senator Kox was speaking from the Turkish capital of Ankara, where he heads a group of 135 observers from the Council of Europe.