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Turkey’s ruling AKP regains majority

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has won a critical parliamentary election, regaining the majority it lost in June, the BBC reports.

With almost all ballots counted, the state-run Anadolu news agency said the AKP had won 49.4% of the vote, with the main opposition CHP on 25.4%.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said voters had “shown that they prefer action and development to controversy”.

The pro-Kurdish HDP crossed the 10% threshold needed to claim seats.

The nationalist MHP will also take seats in Ankara.

With almost all of the results counted, the AKP had won substantially more than the 276 seats needed in order to form a government alone.

However, it fell 14 seats short of the number needed to call a referendum on changing the constitution and increasing the powers of the president, AKP founder Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

With 60 more seats, the government would have been able to bring in those changes without a referendum.

 

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