The 2014 Presidential Elections in Turkey: A Post-election Analysis

GTE Policy Brief (Istituto Affari Internazionali) No. 18, September 2014

by Ergun Özbudun *

On 10 August 2014, in the first popular election of the Turkish President in the history of the Republic, Prime Minister and Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected in the first round with 51.79 percent of the vote. Highlighting the growing social and political polarization in the country, this paper analyses the results of the elections and the regional distribution of votes for the AKP and contending candidates through a comparison with previous electoral results in the country. Finally the analysis addresses the significance of the presidential elections for the future of Turkish politics and Turkey’s democratic system.

Document prepared for the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in the context of the IAI-Istanbul Policy Center-Mercator Foundation project « Turkey, Europe and the World », September 2014.

* Ergun Özbudun is Professor of Political Science and Constitutional Law at Istanbul Sehir University.

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