In the aftermath of the June 7 general elections, which ended the AK party’s chance to form a government on its own, divisions are emerging within the party over what strategy to proceed with.

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is divided between exiting delegates and the new entries to the party on whether to seek a partner for a coalition, form a minority government or embark on early elections. Report BGNNews

The AK Party only managed to get 259 delegates in the Parliament, well short of the 276 required to form government and way below the 330 delegates President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dreamed of to push forward a constitutional change for the sake of granting his presidency supreme powers.

In around 12 days the High Electoral Board (YSK) will release the final tally of the election. Afterwards the newly-elected parliamentarians will be sworn in and the president will designate an individual from the assembly, most likely Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, to establish a government and get a vote of confidence in 45 days. Failure to do so may result in the president calling for early elections.

A high number of prominent AK Party delegates, totaling 68, who will no longer be in the government now that their third term in the party will expire after the new government is formed. They include heavyweights such as spokesperson Bülent Arınç, Turkey’s highly credited economy tsar Ali Babacan, Minister of Labor Faruk Çelik, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Energy Taner Yıldız, Mehdi Eker, Nurettin Canikli as well as Ömer Çelik.

They are against a coalition or a minority government and will instead want to take their chances to run for Parliament in the early elections.

The new parliamentarians of the AK party on the other hand view the idea of early elections as a risk, and believe that the options of forming a coalition or minority government need to be explored to the fullest.

Swept off in east and southeast

The shocking election results saw the AK Party being swept off the map in the east and the southeast of Turkey, losing the Kurdish vote to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

The AK Party was unable to get a single delegate out of five provinces of Ağrı, Tunceli, Şırnak and Hakkari in addition to Iğdır, where it also lost seats to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

The sweep of AK Party votes in the southeast was most prominent in Turkey’s main southeastern province of Diyarbakır, where it was only able to get one seat as opposed to its 11 in the 2011 general elections.

The picture overall in Turkey also struck a crushing blow to their leadership. In 2011 the AK Party which was able to get all the available seats in 12 provinces was only able to repeat the feat in 3 provinces.