ANKARA: Talks will begin next week to form a new coalition government in Turkey after the ruling party lost its overall majority in a shock electoral setback, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to first ask his AKP party, which came first in June 7 elections but lost its majority for the first time since 2002, to try and form a coalition government. Davutoglu needs the support of at least one other party to cobble a government. The AKP gained top place in the election but lost its majority for the first time since coming to power in 2002.

“God willing we will start negotiations next week so that our 78 million people are not left without a government,” Davutoglu told supporters on Friday in the central Anatolian province of Konya, his home region.

Davutoglu said he would meet with each of the three other parties in parliament: the second-placed Repub­lican People’s Party (CHP), the third-placed Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) and the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party’s (HDP).

The AKP has 258 seats in the parliament, CHP 132, and the Nationalist Move­ment Party (MHP) and pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) 80 each.Davutoglu said that he would prioritise talks with the CHP and MHP as his party’s top brass were veering towards an alliance with them.

Davutoglu said his party was not presently considering forming a coalition with the HDP, which entered parliament for the first time as a party rather than as a group of independent MPs.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play