Politics of Turkey
Turkey is a secular, republican parliamentary democracy. Its current constitution was adopted on November 7, 1982 after a period of military rule, and enshrines the principle of secularism. Executive power rests in a President. Legislative power is invested in the 550-seat Turkish Grand National Assembly (Turkiye Buyuk Millet Meclisi), representing 81 provinces. To be represented in Parliament, a party must win at least 10% of the national vote in a national parliamentary election. Independent candidates may run, and to be elected, they must only win 10% of the vote in the province from which they are running. The Turkish military plays an informal political role, seeing itself as the guardian of the secular, unitary nature of the republic. Political parties deemed anti-secular or separatist by the judiciary are banned; examples of this are the overtly religious Welfare Party and the Kurdish Nationalist People's Democracy Party.The current President is Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who was elected by Parliament to this role on May 16, 2000. The Prime Minister is Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose Islam-based Justice and Development Party won a majority of parliamentry seats in the 2002 general elections. The current President of the Constitutional Court is Mustafa Bumin. The head of the Turkish military is Hilmi Ozkok.
The results of the parliamentary elections of 2002 are as follows:
| Party | Vote | Seats |
|---|---|---|
| Justice and Development Party | 34.3% | 363 |
| Republican People's Party | 19.4% | 178 |
| non-partisan | 9 |
