In a stunning blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the most votes in Sunday's election but has lost its parliamentary majority and will need to form a coalition, according to official results based on 98 percent of votes counted. The AKP secured 41 percent of the vote, followed by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) on 25 percent, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on 16.5 and the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) fourth on 12.5 percent. According to the official seat projection, the AKP will have 259 seats in the 550-seat parliament, the CHP 131, the MHP 82 and the HDP 78. Turkey's most popular yet most divisive politician, Erdogan had sought a large majority for the ruling AK Party to boost his powers by moving the country towards a U.S.-style presidential system. Yet now, the ability to make constitutional change on the AKP's terms seems unlikely. "Voters said a clear no to the presidential system," the CHP's Istanbul chairman, Murat Karayalcin, told reporters on Sunday. While constitutionally required to stay above party politics, Erdogan has held frequent rallies during what has been a confrontational election campaign, joining Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in attacking opposition parties. The two have portrayed the election as a choice between a "new Turkey" or a return to a history marked by short-lived coalition governments, economic instability and military coups. "Either the stability of the last 12 years will continue, or there will be the crisis scenario of those who want to take Turkey back to the chaos and crisis atmosphere of the 1990s," Davutoglu told a rally in the southern city of Antalya. On Friday, a deadly bombing in the mainly Kurdish southeast has magnified attention on the pro-Kurdish opposition, which is trying to enter parliament as a party for the first time. Efforts to end a three-decade Kurdish insurgency as well as Erdogan's political ambitions could hinge on that party's fate. Erdogan late on Friday expressed his condolences for victims of the attack, calling it a "provocation". While he says he is equally distant from all parties, HDP leaders have accused Erdogan of whipping up sentiment against them and party deputy Idris Baluken said he and the AKP bore responsibility for Friday's attack. "The source of the violence is the AKP, the president. For two months, we have been warning that the rhetoric would result in just this, including in our talks with the government," Baluken told Reuters.
