Opposition gains in Turkey election

Turkey’s main opposition party has done well despite defeat in the elections. The secularist CHP gained 23 seats and garnered roughly 26 percent of the vote.

However, with polls previously predicting as much as a 30 percent vote share, some elements in the press were not so impressed. Bugun newspaper described it as “bitter happiness”, and Aksam claimed the results weren’t good enough, even if the party leader may have influence on the new constitution.

Speaking after the results came in, CHP party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said:

“We will have a close look at what happens concerning the constitution: the freedoms, equal rights for men and women, freedom of the press. We will continue our fight so that Turkey will be at the same level as civilised and modern countries.”

As he represents a secularist party and comes from the region, perhaps Kilicdaroglu may be as concerned as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the success of the pro-Kurdish BDP party. Celebrations in the southeastern city of Diyabakir after the BDP won 36 seats started off peacefully before violence broke out.

The Sunday night jubilations were interrupted by a bomb which injured eleven people in the Sirnak province near the Iraqi border. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast in the mainly Kurdish region.

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