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Backgrounder: Major political parties running in Turkey's parliamentary elections

Xinhua, June 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

More than 53 million Turks went to polls Sunday to elect a new parliament, with 20 political parties running for 550 parliamentary seats.

Parties must win at least 10 percent of the votes to earn seats in the parliament, or the Great National Assembly.

A total of over 7,000 candidates from the major political parties and 203 independent candidates are competing in the country's 24th parliamentary elections.

Voting started at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and will end at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT) in whole Turkey.

The following are brief introductions to major political parties running in the elections:

--The Justice and Development Party (AKP): Led by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's ruling AKP was established in 2001 as a conservative, mild Islamist center-right party. It advocates rule of law, modern republican form of government and liberal market economy.

The elections in November 2002 put the AKP in single-party rule, ending the history of coalition governments since 1987. In the July 2007 elections, the AKP secured a second term in office with 46.5 percent of votes and In the June 2011 elections, the AKP gained a third term in office with 49.83 percent of votes. It now has 311 seats in parliament. Recent polls showed the AKP is likely to win a fourth term.

--The Republican People's Party (CHP): Established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who created the secular republic of Turkey in 1923, the CHP is Turkey's second biggest party and serves as the main opposition.

It advocates social democracy and nationalism and is faithful to secularism. In 2010, a sexual video scandal forced Deniz Baykal, who had steered the CHP for nearly two decades, to resign and Kemal Kilicdaroglu took his place as party chairman. The CHP won 20.7 percent of votes in 2007 elections and 25.98 percent of votes in 2011 elections. The CHP now has 125 seats in parliament.

--The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP): Founded in 1969 and chaired by Devlet Bahceli, the far-right nationalist MHP is the third biggest party in Turkey.

The MHP failed to enter the parliament in 2002 elections as a result of inadequate votes but won 14.3 percent of votes with 72 parliamentary seats in the 2007 elections and gained 13.01 percent of votes in the 2011 elections. Now the party has 52 seats in parliament.

--The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) is a left-wing political party in Turkey, acting as the fraternal party to pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP).

It was founded in 2012 as the political wing of the Peoples' Democratic Congress, a union of numerous left-wing movements that had previously fielded candidates as independents to bypass the 10 percent election threshold. The party operates a co-presidential system of leadership, with one chairman and one chairwoman. Endit