Party with Islamic roots wins Turkish elections

A party with Islamic roots won an overwhelming victory in Turkish elections and quickly moved to soothe worries it would overturn Turkey's pro-Western stance, denying any plans to "challenge the world."

The Justice and Development Party won a parliamentary majority in yesterday's elections — the first time in 15 years that any party has been in a position to govern alone — largely due to voter fury over a devastated economy.

The win could concern Turkey's powerful and firmly secular military, which in the past forced a pro-Islamic government from power. However, the victorious Justice party stressed it didn't want confrontation.

At a huge celebration at party headquarters, leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: "We will not spend our time dizzy with victory. We will build a Turkey where common sense prevails."

On the sidelines, a party official called on supporters not to shout religious slogans such as "Allah is Great!"

Vote tallies from Sunday's elections show that with 99 per cent of the ballot boxes counted, Erdogan's party had 34 per cent support, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported. The center-left Republican People's Party had 19 per cent, Anatolia reported.

Other parties remained below the 10 per cent threshold needed to enter parliament, meaning that the Justice party and the Republicans would divvy up all 550 seats. Projections by Anatolia showed the Justice party taking 361 seats — enough to rule without a coalition.

Republican party leader Deniz Baykal refused Monday to describe Erdogan's party as a threat to the secular system. "Such accusations would put the country into distress," he said.

"We have to act in good faith. But I will retain caution," Baykal said. "The whole world will be watching developments very carefully."

The vote came as the United States was trying to showcase Turkey as an example of a secular, democratic country that is overwhelmingly Muslim but has cast its future with the West. Turkey — NATO's only Muslim member — is also crucial to any possible action against Iraq, which borders this nation.

After its win, Justice sought to calm the public and the markets with pledges of support for secularism, Turkey's bid to join the European Union and an International Monetary Fund austerity program.

"We have no intention to challenge the world," Erdogan told Dow Jones Newswires. "Under our government, Turkey will be in harmony with the world."

Erdogan leads the party, but has been banned from standing as a candidate because of a jail sentence he served in 1999 for publicly reading a poem that a court deemed anti-secular. It is not clear who would serve as prime minister.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's party won only 1 per cent of the vote and his coalition partners were below the 10 per cent threshold needed for entry into parliament. Legislators agreed to hold the elections 18 months early amid Ecevit's failing health.

Ecevit expressed concern over the Justice party's Islamic roots. "I hope this party respects the secular and democratic regime," he said.

The last time a leader from the Islamic movement led a government was in 1996, when Necmettin Erbakan became the first pro-Islamic premier to take office in Turkey.

Erbakan was forced from government in 1997 amid strong pressure from the military. At the time, Erdogan was a member of Erbakan's party and was mayor of Istanbul.