Parliamentary elections were held in Turkey on 24 June 2018 as part of general elections, with presidential elections taking place on the same day. Originally scheduled for 27 October 2019, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called snap elections on 18 April after months of speculation. With the passage of a series of constitutional amendments in the 2017 referendum, the number of MPs will be increased from the previous 550 to 600. These representatives will be elected by the constituents of the 87 electoral districts of Turkey by party-list proportional representation.
The referendum in 2017 triggered a transition from a parliamentary system to an executive presidency. As such, the Grand National Assembly elected in 2018 was not entitled to appoint the prime minister and cabinet after the elections. While the office of prime minister was set to be abolished altogether, cabinet ministers will primarily serve at the pleasure of the president, who is to fill the role of both head of state and head of government.
Background.
Elections of 2015.
After the elections of June 2015 resulted in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) losing its majority, the four parties in the Grand National Assembly were faced with the prospect of a coalition government. However, after government formation talks broke down, early elections were called for November 2015. The snap election saw the AKP regain its absolute parliamentary majority with 317 of 550 seats. The remainder went to the Republican People's Party (CHP) on 134 seats, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) on 59, and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on 40. The results of the November 2015 elections allowed the AKP to form a single-party government under its leader Ahmet Davutoğlu, but not to change the constitution or call a referendum, which would have required two-thirds or three-fifths majorities, respectively. As such, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was left nominally unable to trigger a switch from a parliamentary to a presidential system, as his AKP had campaigned for ahead of the elections. Additionally, he faced opposition on the matter from Prime Minister Davutoğlu, who allegedly held reservations over a change in form of government. In May 2016, Davutoğlu resigned from both the AKP leadership and the premiership, citing disagreements with Erdoğan as part of the reason. He was replaced in both capacities by Binali Yıldırım.
Coup attempt and state of emergency.
On 15 July 2016, sections of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) launched a coup d'état against the Turkish government, including the ruling AKP government of Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Military jets were reportedly spotted flying over Ankara just before 23:00 EEST (UTC+3), while both the Fatih Sultan Mehmet and Bosphorus bridges in Istanbul were closed by the armed forces. In a televised address on the TRT station, the coup plotters, who referred to themselves as the Peace at Home Council (), claimed that "The government ... [had] been dismissed from office". However, the coup attempt ultimately failed, after President Erdoğan addressed the Turkish people through the FaceTime mobile application, urging them to resist the coup plotters. By the morning of 16 July 2016, the situation had reportedly been brought under control, while the Turkish government accused the Gülen movement of having orchestrated the putsch, and vowed to purge state institutions of its members. On 15 July 2016, Erdoğan announced the introduction of a three-month state of emergency. Under Turkish law, states of emergency may only be upheld for three months at a time, though they may be renewed an unlimited number of times by parliamentary vote. The post-coup state of emergency in Turkey has been extended seven times, and were officially lifted on the 19th of July, although observers criticized the administration as "nothing much changed", with one in particular noting "Although the lifting of the state of emergency is symbolically positive, in that the clampdown we saw after the coup has come to an end... I'm not sure this is going to make a very big difference". The elections of June 2018 are likely to take place under the ongoing state of emergency.
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 serves as a single district. Due to their large populations, the provinces of Bursa and İzmir are divided into two districts, while the provinces of Ankara and Istanbul are each divided into three.
Since the introduction of Turkey's Constitution of 1982, political parties are required to pass an electoral threshold of 10% of the nationwide popular vote in order to obtain seats in parliament, with all those falling below the threshold disregarded for seat distribution purposes. Furthermore, parties must be officially organised in at least half of provinces (41 or more) and in at least a third of districts in those provinces, and must nominate two candidates in 41 or more provinces, in order to be entitled to seats.
Electoral alliances law.
In early 2018, the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the far-right opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) brought forward joint proposals for an electoral alliance law. This was widely speculated to be a result of the MHP's low poll ratings, which made it seemingly impossible to surpass the 10% threshold and win seats in future elections. The MHP had previously announced that it would support the re-election of AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the Presidency, and claimed it was open to contesting future parliamentary elections in an alliance with the AKP.
The new electoral alliances law allowed parties to form alliances and submit them to the YSK, meaning that they would be grouped together under their alliance name on the ballot paper. In addition, voters would be given the option to vote for the alliance as a whole if they did not prefer a specific party. Votes cast for alliances rather than parties would then be distributed to each member party of the alliance at electoral district-level depending on their vote shares. For example, if Party A and Party B were in an alliance and received 60 and 40 votes in an electoral district respectively, then 60% of votes cast for the alliance as a whole would be given to Party A while 40% would be given to Party B. Thus, if 10 votes were cast for the alliance, Party A would have a total of 66 (60+6) votes and Party B would have 44 (40+4) votes.
Parties contesting the election within an alliance would not be subject to the 10% threshold. As long as the Alliance in total won above 10% of the national vote, any party within it would be eligible to win seats regardless of how low their vote share.
The election alliance law also contained numerous controversial changes to election law, including the legalisation of unverified ballot papers to be incorporated in the count. The issue of counting unverified ballots caused a huge controversy during the 2017 constitutional referendum, causing the opposition to allege large-scale electoral fraud and reject the results. On 31 May, the Constitutional Court of Turkey rejected the opposition's bid to nullify the controversial changes.
Electoral districts.
Changes since 2015.
Following the 2017 constitutional referendum, the number of parliamentary seats was increased from 550 to 600. As a result, most electoral districts saw an increase in their number of seats in comparison to distribution at the November 2015 general election. The following tables show the changes, as announced by the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey (YSK).
The seat distribution revisions meant that there was one single-member constituency, namely that of Bayburt. This essentially meant that the election in Bayburt, the only province-wide electoral district to lose seats following the re-distribution, will be conducted by first-past-the-post.
Alliances.
Following the approval of an election alliance law in early 2018, parties were given the ability to contest the election under formal alliances as a means of jointly surpassing the election threshold. A total of 5 parties decided to form two alliances by the 6 May deadline, with a further two parties contesting the election under the lists of these parties.
People's Alliance.
On 20 February 2018, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan formally announced the establishment of the People's Alliance (Turkish: "Cumhur İttifakı") between his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The MHP had previously announced that it would support Erdoğan's re-election and was open to contest future elections under the AK Party banner, which was largely seen as the main reason for the electoral alliances law to be passed in the first place. On 3 May, the Great Unity Party (BBP) joined the People's Alliance and announced that it would contest the elections under the AK Party banner.
The People's Alliance is both a parliamentary and a presidential alliance, although one of its supporters, namely the Free Cause Party (HÜDA-PAR) only supports the Alliance in the presidential election while contesting the parliamentary election as a stand-alone party.
Nation Alliance.
The Nation Alliance is an opposition alliance launched on 1 May 2018 in rival to the People's Alliance. The alliance is formed of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), the newly formed nationalist İyi Party, the Islamist Felicity Party and the centre-right Democrat Party. The formation of the alliance was criticised by the People's Alliance for being an alliance of 'non-conformists', citing the secular ideology of the CHP in rival to the Islamist-orientated Felicity Party. However, the Alliance crucially removed the 10% threshold condition for the Felicity Party, which had at the previous election won 0.68% of the vote. This meant that many Islamist leaning voters, which had previously voted for the AKP in order to not waste their vote, could now vote for the Felicity Party due to its presence in an alliance that is polling above 10% altogether. The four parties were unable to agree on a joint presidential candidate despite speculation over the joint nomination of former president Abdullah Gül. Thus, each party ended up nominating their own candidate for the presidential election.
The inclusion of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was a widely discussed possibility, with the HDP openly calling for its inclusion. Since the HDP is polling very close to the 10% threshold, its ultimate exclusion was criticised by many. The main reason for the HDP's exclusion was seen to be their unclear association with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist organisation.
Other speculated alliances.
Following the HDP's exclusion from the Nation Alliance, it was speculated that the HDP and the Free Cause Party (HÜDA-PAR), an Islamist orientated far-right Kurdish party, could form a broad 'Kurdish alliance'. The alliance was ultimately rejected by the HDP, citing that their left-leaning voter base was not ready for an alliance with a far-right party.
It was speculated early on, before the formation of the Nation Alliance, that every party besides those within the People's Alliance could come together under a broad tactical alliance in order to effectively nullify the 10% threshold. The 'zero threshold alliance' would have consisted of as many parties as possible, despite their differences, purely for tactical reasons.
Parties.
Party leadership elections.
Before the elections, a number of contesting parties held leadership elections to determine who would lead their party into the next elections. Although most of these leadership elections took place before the snap elections were called, they all determined the leaders that lead their respective parties through and beyond 3 November 2019, which was the original scheduled date of the election.
The Republican People's Party (CHP) held its 36th Ordinary Convention on 3 and 4 February 2018. Incumbent leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was re-elected leader with 64% of the delegates' vote. He was challenged by Muharrem İnce, who received the remaining 36%. The convention became known for its poor organisation and irregularities during the candidate nomination process, with İnce subsequently alleging foul play in the ensuring election.
The İyi Party held its extraordinary congress on 1 April 2018 as part of its preparations for the then-scheduled 2019 elections. The congress was held as a result of negotiations with the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey (YSK) over whether the party would be eligible to contest future elections, which had resulted in the YSK claiming that the party had not yet completed all its provincial congresses. The party's leader and presidential candidate Meral Akşener was re-elected unanimously with 1,060 votes.
The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) held its 3rd ordinary