Ankara: In a heavy setback for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey's ruling party AKP (Freedom and Justice Party) lost majority, facing the lowest vote share ever in more than a decade.
Out of over 99.9 percent votes counted, Erdogan's AKP fetched 41 % vote, plummetting remarkably from its last year's mark, state-run TRT television reported.
The AKP is set to collect only 258 seats in the 550-seat parliament, falling 18 short of the majority.
It is the first time in last 13 years since 2002 that the ruling party has lost majority and will have to enter into an alliance with any other party to be able to govern in a coalition.
The election results have poured cold water over Erdogan's ambitions to tighten his grip over the country as apparently his authoritarian disposition did not go down well with the Turks.
However, the AKP remains the single largest party and the runner up were the Republican People's Party (CHP) with 25 percent vote. The third largest party was the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
However, speaking after the polls' results were clear, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested that AKP was ready to form a coalition with another party.
Brushing aside the remarks by opposition parties, he urged them to assess the results in a "healthy and realistic" manner and added that no party had won enough support to govern alone.
Meanwhile, pro-Kurdish party HDP has for the first time crossed the 10% barrier, and fetched 13% - enough votes to enter the Parliament.
In his victory speech, party leader Selahattin Demirtas thanked the countrymen, hailing it as a “victory of the oppressed.”
Addressing a press conference along with Co-Chairperson Figen Yüksekdağ, Demirtas said the HDP's victory was a “victory of those who want a democratic solution [to the Kurdish problem] and peace”.
HDP deputy Sirri Sureyya Onder hailed it as a “victory of democracy over political corruption”.
Our Co-Chair #Demirtaş: We are asking all of our friends to remain at their place of duty. You all deserve to enjoy your success but not yet
— HDP English (@HDPenglish) June 7, 2015
A part of our Co-Chair Selahattin #Demirtaş's victory speech: pic.twitter.com/F2aruSLX7B
— HDP English (@HDPenglish) June 7, 2015
French Senator Pierre Laurent congratulated HDP over its achievement hoping for the Kurdish “wind to pick up in Turkey”.
The HDP has rejected any possibility of forming a coalition with the AKP, declaring that the election had ended Erdogan's hopes of Turkey becoming a presidential republic.
"The discussion of executive presidency and dictatorship have come to an end in Turkey with these elections," Selahattin Demirtas told a news conference in Istanbul as per a BBC report.
Erdogan, who has been at the helm of Turkey's politics since 2003, chose to become the president last year in the hope of rewriting the constitution after this election, expecting a full-throttle victory. However, Turks obviously did not want this.
The opposition parties including the CHP and the MHP hailed the results, calling it as "marking an end of an era". The CHP spokesperson Haluk Koç said Erdoğan was the real loser of the election. "The real winner of this election is democracy. Turkey has won, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has lost," he said.
However, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, in a “balcony speech” to supporters gathering outside the AK Party’s headquarters in Ankara, warned the opposition parties to “not claim victories in an election they lost".
Reiterating that the AK Party had come out as the “winner” of the election, he said the results proved that his party was the "backbone of Turkey”.
Also, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc challenged the opposition parties namely, CHP, MHP and HDP to try forming a coalition.
"If there is going to be a coalition, CHP, MHP and HDP should try to form it. Let them try this first, and AK Party is ready to do its part if they fail to do it," Arinc told reporters as per the Reuters.
