Erdogan's AK Party wants early election, wants to be sole ruler of 'Islamist' Turkey. (Bugun).
The Islamist-rooted AK Party absorbed a stinging election setback in June when it lost single-party rule for the first time since taking power in 2002, taking just under 41 percent of the vote. To form a government, it now needs a junior coalition partner.
However, the government may reckon it can soon recover enough votes to govern alone thanks in part, critics say, to the military campaign it launched last month against Kurdish insurgents in the southeast and in northern Iraq as well as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in northern Syria.
The government calls this a "synchronised war on terror", although critics say the crackdown is aimed mainly at Kurdish militants and geared to winning back nationalist votes.
The AK Party has been in talks with the main opposition, the secularist CHP, but progress has been slow. President Tayyip Erdoğan, who founded the AK Party, is said to favour a snap election, in the hope his party could regain a clear majority.
A survey by pollster Andy-Ar on Wednesday showed AK Party support had risen some two percentage points since the election two months ago to 42.8 percent. It was unclear if this would be enough to regain its exclusive hold on government. However, two other recent polls have suggested the AK Party would take enough votes to return to government alone.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is set to meet the CHP leader on Thursday for their expected final round of coalition talks but told reporters late on Tuesday an "historic announcement" should not be expected after the meeting.
August 23 deadline
Erdoğan also said on Tuesday the constitution did not allow for any relaxation of the Aug. 23 deadline to form a government, underlining that time was running out.
"Society has bought into an early election. We cannot ignore this. But we have to wait for what Prime Minister Davutoğlu tells us today," one senior AK Party official told Reuters ahead of a meeting of party leaders on Wednesday afternoon.
AK Party officials said the prospect of a Nov. 22 election, one week after a G20 summit in Turkey, is gaining credence within the party and was "one step closer" than the preference of a coalition with the CHP or nationalist MHP.
A senior CHP official also cooled coalition expectations and said party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu was to hand out election brochures at a meeting of its leadership on Wednesday.
"The AK Party does not want to form a government with us. We say 'let's run the country together', they say 'no, don't interfere'," he told Reuters. He said the AK Party had proposed to them a short-term coalition, while the CHP had pressed for a four-year reform government.
The Andy-Ar survey, results of which were published in Haberturk newspaper, showed support for the CHP rising to 27 percent, while support for the MHP and pro-Kurdish HDP appeared to be receding.
The results of opinion polls commissioned by the AK Party between Aug. 1-10 are also seen as playing a role in guiding the decision on whether to seek an early election, but recent polls gave some party members cause for concern.
"I think an early election is a gamble. We appear to be up 2-2.5 percentage points from before according to surveys currently in our hands. But this might not be enough for single-party rule," another senior party official said. Hmmm.....Just as i predicted hours after the election.
@moscow_ghost expect Erdo to get out of the coalition talks , perhaps false flag to start Syria offensive https://t.co/idL84vJDCF
— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) July 5, 2015
Hunting season #Turkey Vol.2: The Traitors
Erdogan orders neighborhood headmen to "spy on each and every household" https://t.co/4Vyj3ONN0x
— TurkJourno (@TurkJourno) August 12, 2015#Turkey's pres #Erdoğan appears to have kicked off unofficial campaign for snap elections with today's address to neighborhood leaders
— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) August 12, 2015
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