Turkey's AK Party chases coalition as deadline looms

ANKARA

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has less than three weeks to form a government around the AK Party, which won the largest share of parliamentary seats -- 258 -- in the June 7 general election.

Davutoglu was asked by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to form a new government within a 45-day timeframe on July 9, and talks have been ongoing since July 13.

Amid ongoing coalition negotiations, the possibility of renewed polling is back atop the agenda as the August 23 deadline to establish a government looms near.

The AK Party's first meeting with the Republican People's Party (CHP) as part of a first round in coalition talks to test the waters was held on July 13, which was attended by the two parties’ leaders, Davutoglu and Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Davutoglu then held meetings with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli, and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, on July 14 and 15, respectively.

The left-leaning CHP, which came out second in the June 7 elections and currently has 131 seats in the parliament, seemed the most likely coalition partner, with the pro-Kurdish HDP ruling themselves out of any partnership with the AK Party.

The AK Party and the CHP, comprising the two largest parliamentary groups, entered into official negotiations in search of a coalition two weeks ago, and on Tuesday completed their 5th round of exploratory talks.

The two parties will meet on Monday again for a final discussion.

If the parties fail to reach a compromise, Davutoglu will then steer the coalition talks towards the MHP.

In the case that the deadline expires without a government, either President Erdogan or the parliament may decide to hold a new election. If Erdogan issues the decision, the polling is supposed to be held in the first Sunday following a 90 day period starting from the end of the first deadline.

In the current set of circumstances, this scenario suggests renewed polling in November.

However, if the parliament makes the decision for a new election, then the Supreme Election Board can reduce the 90 day period by as much as half.

The last coalition talks in Turkey were made 16 years ago, when the Democratic Left Party (DSP) of the late premier Bulent Ecevit failed to win the majority at the general election on April 18, 1999.

Since 2002, the AK Party won three general elections to continue a single-party rule for well over a decade, which ended after the June 7 elections this year produced no majority government.