Turkish PM expects call to form new government

Turkey’s Justice and Development Party leader Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday that he is waiting to receive a mandate to form a new government from the country’s president.

Prime Minister Davutoglu said that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might ask him today to form the new government, as the Presiding Committee of the Turkish parliament was already established.

Davutoglu, speaking at an AK Party parliamentary group meeting in Ankara, said he plans within the upcoming week to complete the first round of coalition meetings with other parties.

The AK Party leader said that the procedure in this frame would be clear. “We will hide nothing from the public, we will meet in a transparent way, we will be constructive,” he said.

Erdogan is expected to first ask the AK Party, which gained the most seats in the June 7 general election, to form a government.

The AK Party came in first to secure the largest number of votes -- 41 percent -- and to claim 258 seats in the Grand National Assembly, 18 short of a simple majority.

Opponents from the second-placed Republican People’s Party (CHP) saw 132 deputies elected while the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) both won 80 seats.

If Davutoglu is unable to form a coalition with any of the other three parties -- and none have indicated they would be willing to join the AK Party in government -- tradition dictates the president should offer the second-placed party the chance to create an administration.

If neither the AK Party nor the CHP can form a government within 45 days, the president must call for a fresh election and appoint a prime minister within five days to form an interim government consisting of representatives from all four parties according to their number of deputies.