Turkish elections: AK Party claims 258 seats in parliament, 18 shy of simple majority,

The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party has claimed 258 seats in Turkey’s 25th parliamentary elections Sunday, 18 shy of a simple majority, according to unofficial results.

With 99.99 percent of the ballots counted, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) passed the 10 percent threshold with 13.12 percent of the vote to take 80 seats – the first time it has entered parliament as a party.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) claimed 132 seats, and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) 80 in the Grand National Assembly.

The turnout was 86.63 percent.

Turkey’s AK Party won its fourth consecutive general election but could not reach to necessary majority (276 seats) needed to form a government. The party, which came to power in 2002 before winning elections in 2007 and 2011, secured 40.86 percent of the vote.

Second place CHP had 24.96 percent while the MHP received 16.29 percent of the vote.

Some 47,466,298 voters went to the polls and 46,135,571 of the votes were valid.

Moreover, the AK Party had 49.90 percent, the HDP 20.42 percent, the CHP 17.02 percent and the MHP 9.24 percent of votes of citizens living abroad, according to the unofficial results.

A total of 174,240 polling stations were open and nearly a million Turks living abroad cast their ballots at 122 embassies and consulates, ballot stations at 33 airports and border crossings.

Turkey’s 25th parliamentary election Sunday may have produced no majority government, but the parliament is already in the books with the highest number of women deputies in Turkish history.

The unofficial results show a total of 95 women parliamentarians securing seats in the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

The figure marks a notable rise against the background of the 2011 parliamentary election, when the Grand Assembly saw 79 women lawmakers.

AK Party sent 40 women members into parliament while HDP has 30, the CHP 21 and the MHP 4.