2023 Turkish parliamentary election

2023 Turkish parliamentary election

← 2018 14 May 2023 2028 →

All 600 seats in the Grand National Assembly
301 seats needed for a majority
Turnout87.05% (Increase 0.83 pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu Çiğdem Kılıçgün Uçar
İbrahim Akın
Party AKP CHP YSGP
Alliance People's Alliance Nation Alliance Labour & Freedom
Last election 42.56%, 295 seats 22.65%, 146 seats 11.70%, 65 seats
Seats won 268 169 61
Seat change Decrease 27 Increase 23 Decrease 4 (as HDP)
Popular vote 19,387,412 13,791,299 4,803,774
Percentage 35.61% 25.33% 8.82%
Swing Decrease 6.95 pp Increase 2.68 pp Decrease 2.88 pp (as HDP)

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Devlet Bahçeli Meral Akşener Fatih Erbakan
Party MHP İYİ YRP
Alliance People's Alliance Nation Alliance People's Alliance
Last election 11.10%, 49 seats 9.96%, 43 seats
Seats won 50 43 5
Seat change Increase 1 Steady New
Popular vote 5,484,515 5,272,482 1,529,119
Percentage 10.07% 9.69% 2.81%
Swing Decrease 1.03 pp Decrease 0.27 pp New

  Seventh party
 
Leader Erkan Baş
Party TİP
Alliance Labour & Freedom
Last election
Seats won 4
Seat change New
Popular vote 940,230
Percentage 1.73%
Swing New


Speaker of the Assembly before election

Mustafa Şentop
AKP

Elected Speaker of the Assembly

Numan Kurtulmuş
AKP

Parliamentary elections were held in Turkey on 14 May 2023, alongside presidential elections, to elect all 600 members of the Grand National Assembly. The incoming members formed the 28th Parliament of Turkey. The elections had originally been scheduled to take place on June 18, but the government moved them forward by a month to avoid coinciding with the university exams, the Hajj pilgrimage and the start of the summer holidays. Prior to the election, the electoral threshold for a party to enter parliament was lowered from 10% to 7% by the ruling party.

The elections were contested by a total of 24 political parties. Some parties decided to participate in the elections as part of an electoral alliance, many of which were formed for the previous 2018 election and had been expanded since. The governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) of incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lead the People's Alliance, which also included the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Great Union Party (BBP) and the New Welfare Party (YRP). The largest opposition alliance was headed by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and included five other parties. These included the Good Party (İYİ), the Felicity Party (SP), the Democrat Party (DP) and two other parties headed by former senior AKP politicians, namely the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) of former economy minister Ali Babacan and the Future Party (GP) of former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.[citation needed] The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) opted to run on the lists of the Party of Greens and the Left Future (YSGP) in light of a potential closure case. The YSGP itself headed the left-wing Labour and Freedom Alliance along with the Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP). Two smaller alliances, the Ancestral Alliance of presidential candidate Sinan Oğan and the Union of Socialist Forces, also participated in the elections for the first time.

The People's Alliance retained its majority in the parliament with 323 MPs. The AKP, led by incumbent president Erdoğan, won the highest percentage of the vote with 36%, though it suffered its worst result since 2002. MHP, the second largest party of the People's Alliance, outperformed expectations and won 10.1% of the votes. The alliance overall won just under 50% of the vote. The Nation Alliance only marginally improved on its 2018 vote, winning a combined 34% and 212 MPs. The Labour and Freedom Alliance suffered a decline in their vote, winning just over 10% and 66 seats. No other electoral alliance won seats. The election resulted in seven parties entering the parliament, which is a record in Turkish politics.[citation needed]

Many smaller parties ran on the lists of larger ones to avoid splitting the vote. Prior to the election, the CHP caused controversy by fielding 77 DEVA, Felicity Party, Future Party, and Democrat Party candidates on its own lists, of which 39 (14 DEVA, 10 Felicity, 10 Future, 3 Democrats, 1 IYI, and 1 Party for Change in Turkey) were elected — a significantly higher proportion than these parties' national share of support. These included former AKP ministers such as Sadullah Ergin (running as a DEVA candidate), who was widely criticised for his role as Justice Minister in the Ergenekon conspiracy against the Turkish Armed Forces. The AKP, meanwhile, was criticised for fielding members of the Free Cause Party (HÜDA PAR), a party known for its ties to the Kurdish Hezbollah, as candidates.[citation needed]

Electoral system

The 600 members of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey will be elected by party-list proportional representation in 87 electoral districts, by the D'Hondt method. For the purpose of legislative elections, 77 of Turkey's 81 provinces serve as single districts. Due to their large populations, the provinces of Bursa and Izmir are divided into two districts, while the provinces of Ankara and Istanbul are each divided into three.

According to the Constitution of Turkey, any amendment to the election law can only apply a year after it comes into effect.

Lowering of the electoral threshold

At the initiative of the ruling AKP and its main political ally MHP, the national electoral threshold for a party to enter parliament was lowered from 10% to 7%. This was the first lowering of the threshold since it was introduced by the military junta following the 1980 Turkish coup d'état.

There is no threshold for independent candidates. Political parties can also opt to contest the election in a political alliance with other parties, removing the 7% requirement as long as the alliance as a whole wins more than 7% of the vote in total.

Other amendments to the election law includes the distribution of seats. Previously, parliamentary seats were distributed based on the vote share of each election alliance in any given district. Now, the seats are distributed based solely on the vote share of each political party in that district. If applied to the previous elections, the results would have been slightly more in line with the preferences of the voters on local level. For example, one Erzurum seat from IYI (4th largest party in Erzurum) would have gone to HDP (3rd largest party in Erzurum) and one Elazığ seat from CHP (3rd largest party in Elazığ) to MHP (2nd largest party in Elazığ).

Electoral districts

Turkey is split into 87 electoral districts, which elect a certain number of Members to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The Assembly has a total of 600 seats, with each electoral district allocated a certain number of MPs in proportion to their population. The Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey conducts population reviews of each district before the election and can increase or decrease a district's number of seats according to their electorate.

In all but four cases, electoral districts share the same name and borders as the 81 provinces, with the exceptions being Ankara, Bursa, Izmir and Istanbul. Provinces electing between 19 and 36 MPs are split into two electoral districts, while any province electing above 36 MPs is divided into three. As the country's most populous provinces, Bursa and Izmir are divided into two subdistricts while Ankara and Istanbul are divided into three. The distribution of elected MPs per electoral district is shown below.

District MPs
Adana 15
Adıyaman 5
Afyonkarahisar 6
Ağrı 4
Aksaray 4
Amasya 3
Ankara 36
Ankara (I) 13
Ankara (II) 11
Ankara (III) 12
Antalya 17
Ardahan 2
Artvin 2
Aydın 8
Balıkesir 9
Bartın 2
Batman 5
Bayburt 1
Bilecik 2
Bingöl 3
Bitlis 3
 
District MPs
Bolu 3
Burdur 3
Bursa 20
Bursa (I) 10
Bursa (II) 10
Çanakkale 4
Çankırı 2
Çorum 4
Denizli 7
Diyarbakır 12
Düzce 3
Edirne 4
Elazığ 5
Erzincan 2
Erzurum 6
Eskişehir 6
Gaziantep 14
Giresun 4
Gümüşhane 2
Hakkâri 3
Hatay 11
 
District MPs
Iğdır 2
Isparta 4
Istanbul 98
Istanbul (I) 35
Istanbul (II) 27
Istanbul (III) 36
Izmir 28
Izmir (I) 14
Izmir (II) 14
Kahramanmaraş 8
Kars 3
Kastamonu 3
Karabük 3
Karaman 3
Kayseri 10
Kilis 2
Kırklareli 3
Kırıkkale 3
Kırşehir 2
Kocaeli 14
Konya 15
 
District MPs
Kütahya 5
Malatya 6
Manisa 10
Mardin 6
Mersin 13
Muğla 7
Muş 3
Nevşehir 3
Niğde 3
Ordu 6
Osmaniye 4
Rize 3
Sakarya 8
Samsun 9
Siirt 3
Sinop 2
Sivas 5
Şanlıurfa 14
Şırnak 4
Tekirdağ 8
Tokat 5
 
District MPs
Trabzon 6
Tunceli 1
Uşak 3
Van 8
Yalova 3
Yozgat 4
Zonguldak 5
Total 600

Parties

For political parties to achieve (nationwide) ballot access, they must be eligible to meet the requirements set by Law no. 298 on "Basic Provisions on Elections and Electoral Registers".

The Green Party, founded in September 2020, has been barred from the election by the Interior Ministry despite a court ruling against the ministry. As of 2022 the establishment of the Humanity and Freedom Party had been awaiting the Constitutional Court for four years after the completion of the legal process.

On 11 March 2023, the Supreme Election Council confirmed that 36 parties were eligible to run in the elections.

Contesting parties

The table below shows the places of alliances, parties, and independent candidates in the order they appear on the ballot paper. However, the ballot paper is not the same in every electoral district as some parties do not participate in every electoral district or are on another party's list.

List Party Chairperson(s) Main ideology Alliance
1 Nation Party MİLLET Cuma Nacar Conservatism
2 Rights and Freedoms Party HAK-PAR Düzgün Kaplan Kurdish nationalism
3 Communist Party of Turkey TKP Kemal İbrahim Okuyan Communism Union of Socialist Forces
4 Communist Movement of Turkey TKH Aysel Tekerek Communism
5 Left Party SOL PARTİ Önder İşleyen Socialism
6 Young Party GENÇPARTİ Murat Hakan Uzan Kemalism
7 Homeland Party MEMLEKET Muharrem İnce Kemalism
8 Great Unity Party BÜYÜK BİRLİK Mustafa Destici Turkish Islamonationalism People's Alliance
9 Justice and Development Party AK PARTİ Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Conservatism
10 New Welfare Party YENİDEN REFAH Muhammed Ali Fatih Erbakan Millî Görüş
11 Nationalist Movement Party MHP Devlet Bahçeli Ultranationalism
12 Party of Greens and the Left Future YEŞİL SOL PARTİ İbrahim Akın, Çiğdem Kılıçgün Uçar Green politics Labour and Freedom Alliance
13 Workers' Party of Turkey TİP Erkan Baş Communism
14 Justice Unity Party AB PARTİ İrfan Uzun Nationalism
15 Motherland Party ANAP İbrahim Çelebi Liberal conservatism
16 Innovation Party YP Öztürk Yılmaz Kemalism
17 People's Liberation Party HKP Nurullah Efe Marxism–Leninism
18 National Road Party MİLLİ YOL Remzi Çayır National conservatism
19 Patriotic Party VATAN PARTİSİ Doğu Perinçek Ulusalcılık
20 Power Union Party GBP Ali Karnap Conservatism
21 Republican People's Party CHP Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu Kemalism Nation Alliance
22 Good Party İYİ PARTİ Meral Akşener Kemalism
23 Justice Party AP Vecdet Öz Liberal conservatism Ancestral Alliance
24 Victory Party Ümit Özdağ Anti-immigration
25 Independent candidate(s)

Other eligible parties

The below table shows the remaining parties that were eligible to contest the election but decided run on the lists of other parties or decided not to field candidates.

Party Chairperson Main ideology Supporting alliance Course of action
DEVA Democracy and Progress Party Ali Babacan Liberal conservatism Nation Alliance Green tickYContesting from list of Republican People's Party
DSP Democratic Left Party (Turkey) Önder Aksakal [tr] Social democracy People's Alliance Green tickYContesting from list of Justice and Development Party
DP Democrat Party Gültekin Uysal Liberal conservatism Nation Alliance Green tickYContesting from list of Republican People's Party
SP Felicity Party Temel Karamollaoğlu Millî Görüş Nation Alliance Green tickYContesting from list of Republican People's Party
HÜDA PAR Free Cause Party Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu Kurdish Islamism People's Alliance Green tickYContesting from list of Justice and Development Party
GP Future Party Ahmet Davutoğlu Conservatism Nation Alliance Green tickYContesting from list of Republican People's Party
BÜYÜK TÜRKİYE Great Turkey Party Hüseyin Durmaz Turkish nationalism People's Alliance Red XNThe party withdrew to support People's Alliance
BTP Independent Turkey Party Hüseyin Baş Civic nationalism Nation Alliance Red XNThe party withdrew to support Nation Alliance
EMEK Labour Party Ercüment Akdeniz [tr] Marxism–Leninism Labour and Freedom Alliance Green tickYContesting from list of Party of Greens and the Left Future
YTP New Turkey Party Engin Yılmaz Social conservatism
TDP Party for Change in Turkey Mustafa Sarıgül Social democracy Nation Alliance Green tickYContesting from list of Republican People's Party
HDP Peoples' Democratic Party Mithat Sancar & Pervin Buldan Minority rights Labour and Freedom Alliance Green tickYContesting from list of Party of Greens and the Left Future

List of alliances

Alliance Members Seats before Seats after
1 People's Alliance Justice and Development Party (AK PARTİ)
336 / 600
323 / 600
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)
Great Unity Party (BÜYÜK BİRLİK)
New Welfare Party (YENİDEN REFAH)
2 Nation Alliance Republican People's Party (CHP)
175 / 600
212 / 600
Good Party (İYİ PARTİ)
Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA PARTİSİ)
Future Party (GELECEK PARTİSİ)
Felicity Party (SAADET)
Democrat Party (DP)
3 Labour and Freedom Alliance Party of Greens and the Left Future (YEŞİL SOL PARTİ)
60 / 600
65 / 600
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP)
Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP)
Labour Party (EMEP)
Labourist Movement Party (LHP)
Social Freedom Party (TÖP)
Labor Democracy Party (İDP)
4 Ancestral Alliance Victory Party (—)
1 / 600
0 / 600
Justice Party (AP)
My Country Party (ÜLKEM)
Turkey Alliance Party (—)
5 Union of Socialist Forces Left Party (SOL PARTİ)
0 / 600
0 / 600
Communist Party (TKP)
Communist Movement (TKH)
Revolution Movement (—)

Opinion polls

Conduct

Political violence

During the election campaign, several occurrences that took place have been labelled as political violence. On 31 March 2023, the Istanbul headquarters of the Good Party was targeted in a shooting attack. No one was harmed in the shooting. Akşener criticised Erdoğan after the attack by saying "A political party cannot be intimidated one and a half months before an election. We are not afraid. I fear nothing but God. Mr. Recep (Erdoğan), I am not afraid of you. But you are the president and you are responsible for every citizen in this country." The attackers were emboldened by the president's harsh words against the opposition, Akşener said. Upon investigation, it became clear that a nighttime security guard had fired his gun at burglars – only to hit the building by mistake with two stray bullets. President Erdoğan said in response to Akşener "The truth has come out, are you now going to apologize to me?"

Recent attacks on other parties have raised issues of political polarisation and security in the country. On 1 May, a group of unidentified individuals armed with guns and sticks assaulted HUDAPAR youth members in Mersin. HUDAPAR was hosting an election campaign stand to help their electoral ally the AK Party. The HDP denied links to the attack, and urged its supporters to refrain against provocations.

Results

Party or allianceVotes%Seats+/–
People's AllianceJustice and Development Party19,187,17035.56268–27
Nationalist Movement Party5,421,80010.0550+1
New Welfare Party1,510,7452.805New
Great Unity Party524,8810.970–1
Total26,935,10749.91323–21
Nation AllianceRepublican People's Party13,675,90225.34169+23
Good Party5,225,1969.68430
Total19,078,16435.35212+23
Labour and Freedom AllianceParty of Greens and the Left Future4,800,6078.9061–4
Workers' Party of Turkey954,5471.774+2
Total5,759,95810.6765–2
Ancestral AllianceVictory Party1,211,9172.250New
Justice Party108,7130.2000
Total1,325,6352.460New
Homeland Party502,6690.930New
Union of Socialist ForcesLeft Party76,8010.1400
Communist Party of Turkey62,8260.1200
Communist Movement of Turkey17,2220.0300
Total159,2770.300New
Young Party112,9720.2100
Motherland Party66,1020.1200
Patriotic Party52,7200.1000
Nation Party52,3140.1000
Rights and Freedoms Party42,5090.0800
Justice Unity Party41,2070.080New
People's Liberation Party31,8310.0600
Power Union Party26,3590.050New
National Road Party17,7580.030New
Innovation Party11,1710.020New
Independents226,8310.4200
Total53,962,770100.006000
Valid votes53,962,77097.48
Invalid/blank votes1,393,3112.52
Total votes55,356,081100.00
Registered voters/turnout64,145,50487.05
Source: YSK

This page was last updated at 2023-10-14 17:52 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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