Sedat Ergin: Threshold Dilemma Of AKP
Güncelleme Tarihi:
“One of the most important results of the last week’s controversy about the High Election Board (YSK) was that it revealed the unfairness of the election threshold of 10% once again.
With the decision of YSK, perhaps not the government of Justice and Development Party (AKP) but the foundations of its overwhelming numerical majority in parliament may be questioned. This situation reflects the opposite of the viewpoint of AKP, which was seen as the victim of the mechanisms prior to the November 3 elections but then took the advantage of this perception. The Constitutional amendments of AKP, which has the power to make those amendments with one or two votes of support from independent deputies, will most probably be questioned in the public opinion from now on.
“This controversy leads us to the representation problem, caused by the November 3 elections. 15.8 million votes, in the election in which 32.8 million votes were cast, were thrown into thrash can because of the 10% threshold. This corresponds to approximately 45% of the votes. This is a distortion, which cripples the process through which national will is reflected on Parliament. The number of our citizens, who cannot be represented in Parliament, is more than the population of Israel, Ireland, and Denmark. There is an undeniable disparity in the fact that AKP, which got the one third of the votes controls the two third of the seats in Parliament.”