Turkey is a republic based on secular,
democratic, and pluralistic principles. The Turkish Republic was
established in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and has a
parliamentary system of government that constitutionally
protects personal rights and freedoms. As a result, Turkey has
the divisions of power that one would expect: judicial,
legislative, and executive.
Political institutions:
Turkey is a founding member of the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation Organization, (OECD). It is also a member of United
Nations, NATO, the European Council, the Islamic Conference
Association, and an associate member of the European Union.
The highest judicial authority in Turkey is the
Anayasa Mahkemesi (Constitutional Court). The
executive branch is accountable to the Constitutional Court,
which may also be called upon to review vetoed legislation. The
legislative branch consists of the National Assembly. This body
of 550 deputies, nationally elected by popular vote to serve a
five-year term, develops legislation and elects the President,
who serves for a seven-year term and has limited veto power.
The executive branch consists of the President, the Prime
Minister, and the Council of Ministers. Consulting the popular
vote, the President names the new Prime Minister, who leads the
Council of Ministers. If the election is very close, a coalition
government will be formed with Deputy Prime Ministers from the
other strongly supported parties. Following the new Prime
Minister’s recommendation, the President also appoints the
members of the Council of Ministers, who head the various
governmental departments (such as the Ministry of Education).
All Turkish citizens of 18 and over have the right to vote, and
register to do so with their local electoral offices. All
citizens over 30 are eligible to run for office.
Consultation with the public by means of referendum may also
occur in Turkey. The Constitution was updated and re-declared in
1982.
The general elections held on July 22, 2007 is resulted.
AKP - Adalet ve
Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party) won
overwhelming victory became in a position to govern alone. CHP
and MHP are the opposition parties in the Turkish National
Assembly. The 550-member Assembly has 27 new independent MPs.
The reason of only three of fifteen parties entered into the
elections is the vote threshold. According to Election Law any
party drawing less than 10% of the national vote is excluded
from Parliament and their votes discarded, regardless of the
result in individual constituencies.
The following are the list of the parties entered into the
elections and party percentage seats:
AKP
- Justice and Development Party 46.66 % 340 seats
CHP - Republican People's Party 20.85 % 98 seats
MHP - Nationalist Action Party 14.29 % 70 seats
Independent 27 seats
DP - Democratic Community Party 5.41 %
GP - Youth Party 3.03 %
SP - Happiness Party 2.34 %
BTP - Grand Turkey Party 0.51 %
HYP - The Raise of Public Party 0.5%
IP - Laborer's Party 0.36 %
ATP - Bright Turkey Party 0,29%
TKP - Turkey Communist Party 0.22 %
ÖDP - Freedom and Solidarity Party 0.15 %
LDP - Liberal Democratic Party 0.1%
EMEP - Labor Party 0.08%
Note: As of September 1, 2007 the number of independent MPs is
5.
The current President of the Republic is Abdullah Gül, the
former Minister of Foreign Affairs.
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