Happy Election Day!

Picture Source: flamabayrak.com


Ahh, just when I think I escape the addictive grasp of American politics, I fall into the clutches of Turkish elections!

March 29 marked Turkey's municipal elections, where thousands of political positions are up for grabs, including the mayoral position here in İstanbul. In recent weeks, the streets are covered by thousands of little pennant flags strung between buildings and electrical posts, posters and billboards covering virtually every building, and myriad enormous tour buses blaring with persuasive rhetoric about individual candidates being blasted from megaphones. The amount of money that must have been spent on these things is mind-boggling, but since they seem to spend little time on television, I presume they are just putting their money elsewhere.

What is important to note in all of this is that despite having multi-story posters of people's faces with their names, the logo in the corners of these posters is perhaps more important for voters. You see, Turkish politics is extremely party-oriented, and political candidates are simply instruments to empower the parties. Mind you, some leaders are able to accomplish a lot and others little, people sometimes equate their performance with the party. Think of the United States and people attributing a leader's actions with the party as a whole, even though here, the attribution is to a greater extent.

Even though thirty-three parties competed for the big election in 2007 and nineteen did today, coalitions are rarely formed between the parties, so forming pluralities and majorities are quite important. Coalition governments are viewed here as failures essentially because Turkey had severe economic collapses and other crises in the 1990s under such rule. This, again, makes party politics all the more important.

According to election returns, it looks like the AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, or Justice and Development Party) has retained a relatively strong lead nationwide, even though not quite as strong as it had performed in 2007. The president and PM of Turkey both belong to the AK Party, and so continuation of this party's policy seems to be bolstered. Among its promises are pushing forward with institutional transformation of Turkey for EU accession as well as promoting moral principles in Turkish society.

While some opponents of the AK Parti argue many of these reforms are either negative or haven't been instituted enough, it appears that voters are giving the party a chance to advance its agenda further.

The mood here is very politically charged today, with celebrations in the streets as well as protests and, unfortunately, some violence, particularly in the eastern part of the country. In an effort to stymie violence and unrest, the Turkish government bans the sale of alcohol on election day as well as the carrying of firearms.

As it is quite late and I have more pages of reading to do tomorrow than I'd like to think about, I am going to end this post somewhat abruptly and hit the hay. Goodnight everyone!