AKP’s treasury grant to decrease while HDP will receive one for the first time

Neşe KARANFİL – ANKARA

AFP Photo

The outcome of the June 7 election will change the amount of treasury grants pledged to the country’s political parties, which will receive grants according to the results the most recent polls. 

The treasury grants, which are distributed every year according to the amount of votes the political parties received from the latest elections, will change with the results of the June 7 parliamentary election. 

In 2015, a total of 177 million Turkish Liras was given as the yearly treasury grants to the Justice and Development Party (AKP), the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which will enter parliament as a party for the first time, will begin receiving the grant for the first time in 2016. 

According to the law on political parties, the amount of grants is doubled during a local election year and tripled in a year with a general election. If the local and general elections are held on the same year, then the amount of grants is also tripled. 

Due to the 2015 general election, the political parties received a total of 531 million liras this year. While the AKP’s yearly grant was 99 million liras, this figure tripled to 297 million liras due to the election. 

The CHP received a total of 156 million liras in 2015, while its normal yearly grant was 52 million liras. The MHP got 26 million liras as their yearly grant and a total of 78 million liras when tripled due to the parliamentary elections. 

The AKP lost its single party majority in the June 7 general election, and because the HDP passed the 10 percent election threshold, the AKP’s grant will be reduced. 

While the AKP had previously received 21.5 million votes representing almost 50 percent of all the electorate, this figure decreased to 18.8 million votes and almost 41 percent on June 7. Thus the treasury grant the AKP is going to receive in 2016 is estimated to be around 83 million liras, taking into consideration a 10 percent increase in the grants. 

The CHP is expected to get 50.6 million liras, while the MHP’s grants are expected to be around 33 million liras. 

Newcomer HDP will receive around 26.6 million liras after garnering around 13 percent of the votes.