Turkey’s Erdoğan expected to call new elections

He’s believed to have favoured a brand new election, and Turkey’s fundamental opposition chief has accused the president of obstructing the coalition-building efforts, a cost Erdogan denies.

Among other things, the situation is a belated vindication of Malcolm Turnbull and his warnings of the danger of a directly-elected president. Ironically, Azerbaijan will also hold the next parliamentary elections for Milli Majlis on 1 November.

Voters are likely to go to the polls on 1 November.

In June’s election, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost the absolute majority of Parliament seats it had enjoyed throughout its 13-year rule, and the vote scotched an attempt by Erdoğan to give himself sweeping executive powers.

It seems that the would-be Sultan has no intention of doing so, however. Erdoğan’s conservative party has its roots in Islamist politics, while the secular CHP is the party of modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Data published Friday showed consumer confidence dropped to the lowest level in more than six years in August.

The elections will come at a time of a dual offensive against Kurdish militants and Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria, with some critics blaming Erdogan for operating a “war machine” to seek political gains for his AKP.

June’s result appeared to block his plans to boost the powers of the presidency in Turkey. A coalition government would have limited Erdogan’s ability to steer the government from behind the scenes. “There is nearly no foreign institutional investor interest in Turkey“. Under Erdogan, ties with former allies including Israel, Syria, Egypt and the United States have become strained.

“Now all we can do is wait for an election in which the AK Party regains a single party government, then the forex rate will cool down”, said 26-year-old Omer, a small kebab restaurant manager in central Ankara.

Davutoğlu was made Prime Minister but main opposition party, the Kemalist Republican People’s party (CHP), vehemently opposed such a move, while equal-third-largest HDP and rightwing nationalists MHP also had insurmountable differences with the ruling party. The pro-Kurdish HDP threatened to boycott such a cabinet if its candidates are not accepted as interim ministers.

It remains to be seen if the AKP will improve on its vote share of just under 41 percent in the new polls, and commentators have described Erdogan’s strategy as a major political gamble. He said security precautions would be enhanced before the next one.

“With God’s permission, we will emerge victorious out of this business… the blood of (martyrs) will not remain on the ground”, said Erdogan.