Vote in Turkey Holds Europe's Interest

Turkish voters went to the polls on Sunday to vote for what many observers anticipate will be a completely new government, charged with hauling the country out of economic misery.

While election results were not expected until late Sunday night, a leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) was quoted on Sunday afternoon by the Anatolian news agency as saying that early poll results indicated his party would win a majority of seats in parliament.

“According to the first numbers coming in, it looks like we will form a government on our own,” deputy AKP head Abdulla Gul was quoted as saying.

The election, followed with interest in European capitals and in Washington, appears to spell the end for Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's Democratic Left Party and their coalition partner Motherland Party.

Both parties, who millions of Turks blame for their economic misery, are expected to score less than 10 percent of the vote needed to stay in parliament.

The winner, if predictions hold, will be the AKP, led by former Istanbul mayor Tayyip Erdogan. The party, seen by some observers as dangerously Islamistic, is one of only two of the 17 parties in the election expected to breach the 10 percent mark.

Guarding against Islamism

Turkey, a secular state which forbids women to wear headscarves to work, has already take action to ensure Erdogan does not assume too much power. The former mayor is barred from assuming the prime minister's office by a court order. Turkey's top court ruled Erdogan ineligible because of a previous conviction of Islamist sedition.

But Erdogan has continued to campaign for his party, riding a groundswell of support that pollsters had predicted could give the AKP close to 40 percent of the vote. The party was not expected to win a full majority, however, leaving the party to look for coalition partners.

The likely candidate would be the Republican People's Party, whose leading candidate, Kemal Dervis, is favored by the West. The former economics minister until he resigned this summer, Dervis is credited by many for saving Turkey from utter economic collapse, paving the way for a $16 billion (16 billion euro) bailout package from the International Monetary Fund.

The most likely coalition would please European leaders eager to see Erdogan's party kept in check. Turkey is eager to enter the European Union, and is demanding the EU give it a negotiation date at its historic December expansion conference.

The outcome of the elections will influence Europe's answer.