Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Turkish general election, 1999

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April 18, 1999
  
2002 →

76 seats, 14.64%
  
no seats, 8.18%

136
  
129

Date
  
18 April 1999

15 January 1989
  
6 July 1997

no seats, 8.18%
  
New party

129
  
111

Location
  
Turkey

Turkish general election, 1999 httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Winner
  
Bülent Ecevit

Other Instances
  
Turkish general election, Turkish general election, Turkish general election, Turkish general election, Turkish general election

Turkey's 14th general election was held on Sunday April 18, 1999 and was the first election in Turkish history to combine local, council and parliamentary elections on the same day. Bülent Ecevit's Democratic Left Party (DSP), soaring in popularity after the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, emerged as the biggest party and swept the board in most of Turkey's western provinces. It failed, however, to obtain an overall majority, and did not do nearly as well in the eastern provinces.

The second largest party (dubbed "the second winner" by the press the following day) became the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which performed strongly nationwide, producing MPs from nearly all of the country's 81 provinces. The largest party of the last election, the Virtue Party (FP), returned to opposition after shedding forty-seven seats and a million votes. The decline of the Republican People's Party continued; this was the first time the party failed to exceed the 10 percent threshold for parliamentary representation.

Coalition government

Bülent Ecevit formed the country's latest coalition government, against the FP, with the second-placed MHP and the fourth-placed motherland Party (ANAP) as a junior partner. The DYP was consulted during coalition negotiations, but ended up in opposition. The DSP-MHP-ANAP coalition turned out to be one of the most stable in many years, surviving without change until Ecevit's hospitalisation and subsequent refusal to resign in 2002 prompted a wave of resignations from the DSP and an early general election.

References

Turkish general election, 1999 Wikipedia