Politics as (un)usual? An overview of the June 2018 presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003166047-3

The concurrent parliamentary and presidential elections on June 24, 2018, show several elements of change and continuity in Turkish politics. The snap elections were the first elections after Turkey’s transition to an “alla Turca” presidential regime and marked the fragmentation of the dominant right-wing bloc due to the emergence of the center-right IYI and its and conservative SP’s electoral alliance with the main opposition CHP. Rapidly deteriorating democratic practices and economic conditions, while resulting in a significant decrease in the incumbent AKP’s electoral support in the general elections, did not, however, impede President Erdoğan from securing another victory in the presidential election. After a brief overview of the background of the two elections with a particular focus on the emergence of IYI, electoral alliances, presidential candidates, growing party, electoral and media polarization, election campaign, and electoral conduct, this chapter presents descriptive accounts of the systemic indicators of the Turkish party system and geographical distributions of the legislative parties and major presidential candidates’ electoral supports to answer whether the two elections reveal a departure from the “Turkish politics as usual.”