ESKISEHIR, Turkey
Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli has said that the Justice and Development (AK) Party and the Republican People's Party (CHP) must form a coalition after Friday prayers this week.
His remarks came three days after Turkey's two largest parliamentary parties completed a five-round series of exploratory talks on forming a coalition government.
It is almost certain that a new coalition government will not emerge by the MHP’s leader’s preferred deadline of tomorrow.
"The [party] chairmen should not waste this 26-day effort and establish the AKP (AK Party)-CHP government Turkey needs after Friday prayers," Bahceli told reporters in Eskisehir province on Thursday.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was asked to form a new government within a 45-day timeframe on July 9. Talks have been ongoing since July 13.
Although his AK Party came first in Turkey’s June 7 general election, it did not win enough seats to form a majority government, so it must attempt to forge a coalition with one of three other parliamentary parties -- the second-placed CHP (132 seats), the MHP (80 seats) or the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, HDP (80 seats).
If Davutoglu is unable to form a coalition, tradition dictates the second-placed party - the CHP – should be offered the chance to create an administration. If this fails, a fresh election is likely to be called for late November.
The last coalition talks in Turkey were held 16 years ago when Bulent Ecevit’s Democratic Left Party formed a government with two other parties that lasted until 2002.
