Elections in Turkey

The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi) has 550 members, elected for a four-year term (five years before the 2007 referendum) by a system based on closed list proportional representation according to the D'Hondt method. To participate in the distribution of seats, a party must obtain at least 10% of the votes cast at the national level (the highest electoral threshold in any proportional system in the world) as well as a percentage of votes in the contested district according to a complex formula and votes for parties not seated are redistributed to the party that won the most votes. Independent candidates who receive more than 10% of the votes cast in a province are also seated and in the 2007 and 2011 elections members of the Democratic Society/Peace and Democracy Party evaded the threshold by running as independents and winning about 5% of the seats.

Contents

• Latest election
• Past elections
• Presidential elections
• Referendums
• References

The president was elected for a seven-year term by the parliament prior to the 2007 constitutional changes, and will be elected for at most two consecutive five-year terms in the future.

Turkey has a multi-party system, with two or three strong parties and often a fourth party that is electorally successful. Since 1950, parliamentary politics has been dominated by conservative parties. Even the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) tends to identify itself with the "tradition" of Democrat Party (DP). The leftist parties, most notable of which is the Republican People's Party (CHP) draw much of their support from big cities, coastal regions, professional middle-class, civil service, military officers, and the religious minority of Alevi.

The last general election was the one that took place on 1 November 2015.