Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a landslide victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections with 46.5 percent of the total votes.

AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Sunday night that his party has won the parliamentary election and will continue ruling the country.

Erdogan, also prime minister of the country, announced victory after AKP gained 47.4 percent when the 97.4 percent votes were counted.

Addressing thousands of supporters of the AKP in front of the party's headquarters in Ankara, Erdogan said that "our union, democracy and republic have all gained strength at the ballot box."

"The national will was reflected at the ballot box in a free and transparent way," he said, adding that he felt quite pleased that "the citizens have expressed their democratic choice in a peaceful and democratic atmosphere."

He reiterated that his party will continue to crack down on terrorism.

According to primary statistics, the AKP gained 46.5 percent of votes in the elections. The opposition Republican People's Party(CHP) gained 20.9 percent of the votes, ranking the second place and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) gained 14.3 percent, ranking the third.

Meanwhile, MHP Chairman Devlet Bahceli said, "Turkish nation brought AKP to power for a second time, we should respect our nation's will," according to the semi-official Anatolian News Agency.

Bahceli said in a written statement that "Our nation assigned us as the opposition. It is understood that in the 23rd parliament important duties fall on MHP's lap. MHP will try to fulfill these duties with a sense of responsibility."

In 2002 AKP became as the first party from the polls with 34.29percent of votes and formed a single-party government. CHP was the opposition party in the parliament while the MHP missed the parliament for it only got 8.36 percent of votes.

The three parties out of the 14 parties participated the election passed the 10 percent threshold to enter the parliament. Seats that have been allocated to the parties are: AKP, 343; CHP,111; MHP 71; independent candidates, 25.

When the early results showed that AKP would win the election, supporters of AKP began to celebrate in front of AKP headquarters. Firecracker can be heard all over the city.

During the counting process, Democrat Party leader Mehmet Agar announced that he resigned as his party only got 5.7 percent of votes, having no chance to enter the parliament.

Turkey's elective law regulates that parties that cannot get 10percent of votes will have no seats in the parliament.

Voting process for electing 550 parliament members has ended across Turkey as of 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT).

Fourteen political parties and a total of 7,394 candidates, including 699 independent candidates, run for the elections.

The elections were scheduled to be held on Nov. 4 but were brought forward almost four months because of the failure to elect a new president after the CHP boycotted the presidential election in late April and early May.
 

Editor: Yan