Turkey’s AKP smoothly wins vote of confidence

ANKARA

Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) comfortably won a parliamentary vote of confidence on Nov. 30, a month after its landslide victory in the Nov. 1 snap elections.

509 deputies cast votes on Nov. 30, and the AKP received 315 votes of confidence while 194 deputies cast votes of no confidence. 

AKP leader and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu hastily rushed to the plenary session from Brussels, where he attended a summit with the European Union leaders on the Syrian refugee crisis on Nov. 29 and held talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg six days after NATO member Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet in the first known incident of its kind since the Korean War.

“I’m sitting here as a prime minister who got 49.5 percent [of the] votes. I was in parliament yesterday [Nov. 28]. We came from a democratic election. There is a very dynamic democracy in Turkey. Tomorrow [Nov. 30], we will go for a vote of confidence,” Davutoğlu told reporters at a press conference in Brussels on Nov. 29, adding, “I will announce three-month, six-month and one-year reform packages. I will talk about economic and judicial reforms. I will announce our timeline for grand infrastructure works,” 

In order to take office Turkish governments must receive a vote of confidence from at least 276 deputies, constituting a simple majority.

According to results of the Nov. 1 snap elections, the AKP, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) obtained 317, 134, 59 and 40 seats, respectively.