Turkey votes, PM's party poised to win

More than 50 million Turks will vote Sunday in parliamentary elections as the Justice and Development Party (AKP), bolstered by economic stability in the country, seeks a straight third term in office. The popularity of charismatic 57-year-old Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who polls predict will grab an easy victory, is largely due to the economic boom. Turkey's gross domestic product grew by a spectacular 8.9 percent in 2010, outpacing global recovery, and the party has presided over the doubling of per capita GDP since coming to power in 2002. However questions still linger whether the Islamist-rooted AKP will secure the overwhelming majority it needs which will enable it to overhaul the constitution. The party needs a two-thirds majority of 367 seats in the 550-member house to pass the amendments unilaterally without recourse to a confirmatory referendum. It will need at least 330 seats to push the changes through parliament, but will then still have to win popular approval. Alongside its economic success, the AKP, at the head of a predominantly Muslim but officially secular country, has developed stronger ties with Turkey's Arab neighbours. On the domestic front it has brought the once omnipotent army to heel. But Erdogan has also stoked suspicions over his future path with growing intolerance to criticism, routine attacks on the media and restrictions on the Internet. Candidates from 15 political parties and 200 independents are running in the parliamentary contest. Only two main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and Nationalist Action Party (MHP) will make it over the 10 percent election threshold to sit in parliament as a group. Candidates backed by the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party but running as independents to circumvent the 10-percent barrier are expected to increase their seats to up to 30 from the current 20. As well as sustaining economic stability, another main task of the new government will be the settlement of the Kurdish conflict, which has claimed 45,000 lives since the rebellion of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) started in 1984.