Turkey PM to formally give up on coalition as polls loom

Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was on Tuesday set to formally acknowledge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he cannot form a coalition government, paving the way for new elections just months after the June  polls.

Davutoglu will, in line with procedure, return to Erdogan the mandate he received from the president on July 9 to begin coalition talks with opposition parties, the official Anatolia news agency said.

Their meeting begins at 1630 GMT at Erdogan's presidential palace, the presidency announced.

With all possibilities exhausted before a August 23 deadline to form the new government, Turkey is now facing snap new polls and uncharted political territory.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its overall majority in the June 7 legislative polls for the first time since it came to power in 2002, in a major setback for Erdogan.

Davutoglu held coalition talks with second placed Republican People's Party (CHP) and third placed Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) but failed to broker a deal with either.

According to the constitution, the AKP will be able to continue as a minority government until elections if a majority in parliament votes in favour of holding the early polls.
If however Erdogan uses his right to call the polls himself, a so-called "election government" will be formed until the polls, consisting of members from all four parties represented in parliament.

"Now all paths lead to the ballot box," pro-AKP columnist Abdulkadir Selvi wrote in the Yeni Safak daily.

Some analysts have suggested Erdogan all along wanted to see a re-run of the election so the AKP could regain an overall majority and realise his dream of creating a presidential system in Turkey.

With the timing of the new polls determined by the method in which they are called, the elections are expected in late November, Anatolia said.

The president, who dominated Turkey as premier from 2003-2014 and now as head of state, had infuriated opponents on Friday when he insinuated that the presidential system was already "de-facto" in place.

"Whether you agree or not, Turkey's regime has changed," Erdogan said.

Murat Yetkin, editor-in-chief of Hurriyet Daily News, said Erdogan had used every possible means in order to extend the AKP's time in power in defiance of the election result.

"Nobody expected the seizure of an entire election by simply ignoring the outcome," he wrote.