2023 Turkish parliamentary election
14 May 2023
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 AK Party CHP YSGP
Alliance People's Alliance Nation Alliance Labour & Freedom
Last election 42.56%, 295 seats 22.65%, 146 seats 11.70%, 65 seats[lower-alpha 1]
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 Good Party Yeniden Refah
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.[1] Prior to the election, the electoral threshold for a party to enter parliament was lowered from 10% to 7% by the ruling party.[2]

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. 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.[3]

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.

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.[4] 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.

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.[5]

According to the Constitution of Turkey, any amendment to the election law can only apply a year after it comes into effect.[6]

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%.[7] This was the first lowering of the threshold since it was introduced by the military junta following the 1980 Turkish coup d'état.[8]

There is no threshold for independent candidates.[9] 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.[10]

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).[11]

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.[12]

DistrictMPs
Adana15
Adıyaman5
Afyonkarahisar6
Ağrı4
Aksaray4
Amasya3
Ankara36
Ankara (I)13
Ankara (II)11
Ankara (III)12
Antalya17
Ardahan2
Artvin2
Aydın8
Balıkesir9
Bartın2
Batman5
Bayburt1
Bilecik2
Bingöl3
Bitlis3
  
DistrictMPs
Bolu3
Burdur3
Bursa20
Bursa (I)10
Bursa (II)10
Çanakkale4
Çankırı2
Çorum4
Denizli7
Diyarbakır12
Düzce3
Edirne4
Elazığ5
Erzincan2
Erzurum6
Eskişehir6
Gaziantep14
Giresun4
Gümüşhane2
Hakkâri3
Hatay11
  
DistrictMPs
Iğdır2
Isparta4
Istanbul98
Istanbul (I)35
Istanbul (II)27
Istanbul (III)36
Izmir28
Izmir (I)14
Izmir (II)14
Kahramanmaraş8
Kars3
Kastamonu3
Karabük3
Karaman3
Kayseri10
Kilis2
Kırklareli3
Kırıkkale3
Kırşehir2
Kocaeli14
Konya15
  
DistrictMPs
Kütahya5
Malatya6
Manisa10
Mardin6
Mersin13
Muğla7
Muş3
Nevşehir3
Niğde3
Ordu6
Osmaniye4
Rize3
Sakarya8
Samsun9
Siirt3
Sinop2
Sivas5
Şanlıurfa14
Şırnak4
Tekirdağ8
Tokat5
  
DistrictMPs
Trabzon6
Tunceli1
Uşak3
Van8
Yalova3
Yozgat4
Zonguldak5
Total600

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".[13]

The Green Party, founded in September 2020, has been barred from the election by the Interior Ministry despite a court ruling against the ministry.[14][15] 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.[16]

On 11 March 2023, the Supreme Election Council confirmed that 36 parties were eligible to run in the elections.[17]

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 tickContesting from list of Republican People's Party
DSP Democratic Left Party (Turkey) Önder Aksakal Social democracy People's Alliance Green tickContesting from list of Justice and Development Party
DP Democrat Party Gültekin Uysal Liberal conservatism Nation Alliance Green tickContesting from list of Republican People's Party
SAADET Felicity Party Temel Karamollaoğlu Millî Görüş Nation Alliance Green tickContesting from list of Republican People's Party
HÜDA PAR Free Cause Party Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu Kurdish Islamism People's Alliance Green tickContesting from list of Justice and Development Party
GELECEK PARTİSİ Future Party Ahmet Davutoğlu Conservatism Nation Alliance Green tickContesting from list of Republican People's Party
BÜYÜK TÜRKİYE Great Turkey Party Hüseyin Durmaz Turkish nationalism People's Alliance Red XThe party withdrew to support People's Alliance[18]
BTP Independent Turkey Party Hüseyin Baş Civic nationalism Nation Alliance Red XThe party withdrew to support Nation Alliance[19]
EMEK Labour Party Ercüment Akdeniz Marxism–Leninism Labour and Freedom Alliance Green tickContesting 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 tickContesting from list of Republican People's Party
HDP Peoples' Democratic Party Mithat Sancar & Pervin Buldan Minority rights Labour and Freedom Alliance Green tickContesting 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)[lower-alpha 2]
175 / 600
212 / 600
Good Party (İYİ PARTİ)[lower-alpha 3]
Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA PARTİSİ)[lower-alpha 4]
Future Party (GELECEK PARTİSİ)[lower-alpha 4]
Felicity Party (SAADET)[lower-alpha 4]
Democrat Party (DP)[lower-alpha 4]
3 Labour and Freedom Alliance Party of Greens and the Left Future (YEŞİL SOL PARTİ)
60 / 600
65 / 600
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP)[lower-alpha 5]
Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP)
Labour Party (EMEP)[lower-alpha 5]
Labourist Movement Party (LHP)[lower-alpha 5]
Social Freedom Party (TÖP)[lower-alpha 5]
Labor Democracy Party (İDP)[lower-alpha 6]
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.[21] 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.[22][23][24] 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?"[25]

Recent attacks on other parties have raised issues of political polarisation and security in the country.[26] 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.[27]

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

Notes

  1. ↑ As Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). The full HDP list won 67 seats, of which two were taken by the Workers' Party of Turkey which contested the 2023 elections separately). Anticipating a ban from the closure case result, the HDP announced on 23 March that it would contest the vote under the allied Green Left party's ticket.
  2. ↑ Republican People's Party will run under Good Party list in 7 provinces[20]
  3. ↑ Good Party will run under Republican People's Party list in 9 provinces[20]
  4. 1 2 3 4 Participates in elections within the Republican People's Party
  5. 1 2 3 4 Participates in elections within the Party of Greens and the Left Future
  6. ↑ Participates in elections within the Workers' Party of Turkey

References

  1. ↑ "Erdogan calls Turkish elections for May 14, three months after quake disaster". Reuters. 10 March 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  2. ↑ "Turkey reduces election threshold to 7 percent - Türkiye News". Hürriyet Daily News. 1 April 2022. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  3. ↑ Gadzhiev, Amur (19 April 2023). "Turkey on the Eve of Presidential and Parliamentary Elections: Balance of Political Forces in the Country". russiancouncil.ru. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  4. ↑ "Millet İttifakı partilerinden 39 aday, CHP listesinden Meclis'e girdi". www.ntv.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  5. ↑ "How Turkey's Parliamentary Elections Work". carnegieeurope.eu. 26 October 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  6. ↑ "Turkey: Parliament Passes Law Amending Election Laws and Lowering Electoral Threshold". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  7. ↑ Minute, Turkish (April 2022). "Turkey reduces its election threshold from 10 to 7 percent - Turkish Minute". Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  8. ↑ "Turkey lowers party' election threshold for parliament to 7 pct". www.xinhuanet.com. 1 April 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  9. ↑ "Crossing the threshold – the Turkish election". www.electoral-reform.org.uk. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  10. ↑ "Yeni seçim yasası ve ittifaklar: Kritik değişiklikler!". www.ntv.com.tr (in Turkish). 3 April 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  11. ↑ Sarıkaya, Muharrem (15 March 2022). "İttifakın ayrıcalığı kalmayacak". www.haberturk.com (in Turkish). Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  12. ↑ "Yüksek Seçim Kurulunun 02/03/2023 Tarihli ve 71 Sayılı Kararı" (PDF). Official Gazette of the Republic of Turkey. No. 32121. 3 March 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  13. ↑ "Turkey's Supreme Election Council finds 24 political parties eligible to enter elections". Bianet. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  14. ↑ Büro, Ankara (9 December 2022). "Yeşiller Partisi yine kurulamadı: Partiye dijital engel". Medyascope (in Turkish). Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  15. ↑ ERGİN, Sedat (18 March 2023). "Mahkeme, Yeşiller ile İçişleri Bakanlığı arasındaki kritik davada kimi haklı buldu?". www.hurriyet.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  16. ↑ "Türkiye 2022 Report". EU Delegation to Türkiye. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  17. ↑ "Yüksek Seçim Kurulu son dakika olarak duyurdu: Seçime 36 siyasi parti katılacak". 11 March 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  18. ↑ "Büyük Türkiye Partisi seçimlerden çekiliyor: Ülkemizi rahatsız eden görüntüler var". TGRT Haber. 12 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  19. ↑ "BTP Genel Başkanı Baş: Seçime katılmama kararı aldık". SoL Haber. 10 April 2023.
  20. 1 2 "CHP ve İYİ Parti 16 ilde ortak adayla seçime girecek" (in Turkish). 9 April 2023.
  21. ↑ "Son Dakika: İYİ Parti İstanbul İl Başkanlığı'na silahlı saldırı". www.cumhuriyet.com.tr (in Turkish). 31 March 2023. Archived from the original on 31 March 2023. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  22. ↑ ""I am not afraid, Mr. Recep!"". Gercek News. 31 March 2023. Archived from the original on 31 March 2023. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  23. ↑ "Son Dakika: Meral Akşener İl Başkanlığı'nda... Beklenen açıklama geldi". www.cumhuriyet.com.tr (in Turkish). 31 March 2023. Archived from the original on 31 March 2023. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  24. ↑ "Opposition blames President Erdogan after election build-up turns violent". Al Arabiya English. Istanbul. 2 April 2023. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  25. ↑ "Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan'dan Akşener'e kurşun tepkisi: Gerçek ortaya çıktı, özür dileyecek misin?". www.ntv.com.tr (in Turkish). 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  26. ↑ "Armed attack on AKP office in Adana". Bianet. 21 April 2023. Archived from the original on 23 April 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  27. ↑ "Mersin'de HÜDAPAR standına saldırı, HDP açıklama yaptı". Rudaw (in Turkish). 1 May 2023.
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