The story began in March, when a mayoral election saw opposition party candidate Ekrem Imamoglu winning against the
AKP party candidate by approximately 14,000 votes.
In the 16 days since the election, the
AKP has filed numerous appeals for vote recounts across Istanbul, a city of more than 15 million people.
Eliseo Rasco, Police Regional Office-12 director said Basser Sahak was killed in an early dawn encounter with police and military intelligence operatives in sitio Lebe, Barangay Daliao, Maasim, a known
AKP stronghold in Sarangani.
AKP noted that Erdogan's candidacy for the presidency is also supported by the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
According to Kibris newspaper, BKP leader Izzet Izcan said the intensive expansion of the
AKP party in the 'TRNC' had taken on "threatening dimensions" and constituted a threat for the Turkish Cypriot community's identity and existence.
Unsurprisingly, the
AKP founder was accused of being a tool in the hands of both the Doy-an Media Group and the GE-len movement.
The victory of Turkey's Islamist rooted Justice and Development Party (
AKP) -- on what critics argue was a campaign built on fear and polarisation and party supporters contest was affirmation of its support among voters -- now leaves open the question of how the
AKP will rule in the deeply divided country.
With 98 per cent of the vote counted, the
AKP had won 49.4 per cent and 316 seats in the 550 seat parliament, a far better performance than predicted by the polls.
Logically, a coalition cabinet formed of the
AKP and CHP should give Erdogan 389 votes for a constitutional amendment to make the republic's system presidential.
If the
AKP stays, economic instability will increase.
Instead, it illustrated another aspect of the
AKP's emergence as a political brand in which all members and candidates were rendered to a status of personnel of a highly coordinated and coherent party organization built around the personal charisma of its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and run practically by him.
