Roundup: Uncertainty looms large over Turkey in post-election era

Turkey looks for prolonged political uncertainty amid difficulties in establishing a coalition government and the president's reluctance to authorize official talks on government formation.

The parliamentary elections in early June resulted in a stalemate with no political party securing enough seats to establish a single-party government.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), having been in power for the last 13 years, lost the majority in the elections over economic difficulties, corruption probes and the president's meddling into government affairs.

That means four opposition parties that were represented in the Turkish parliament have to negotiate a deal and make concessions to form a coalition government.

Yet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also the former AKP leader, has not yet given the mandate to any lawmaker in the parliament to start official talks for government formation with others.

Never in 13 years has the establishment of a government been so delayed in Turkey, which has given rise to speculations about lingering uncertainty in the government.

In national elections in 2002, 2007 and 2011, no president has ever waited for the election of Speaker in the Parliament to task a leader of the party that received the largest share of votes in election with the formation of government.

Yet Erdogan keeps dragging his feet in mandating a political party leader though more than a month has passed since the general elections.

He insisted on the completion of the Speaker's election as well as the formation of Speaker's Council before giving the mandate.

"This delay is not a natural delay. The president needs to give the mandate (to form a new government) as soon as possible," Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the second largest party in Turkey, the Republican People's Party (CHP), has recently said.

"If a coalition will not be formed, then early elections will be held. An interim government cannot carry on any longer (than this), it cannot make healthy decisions," the CHP leader added.

The president could have tasked a lawmaker with forming the government after the election commission certified the official election results, which it did on June 18.

The former presidents gave, five times in the past, a lawmaker the mandate to form the government within a week after the election commission announced the official results.

In many cases, the president has not even waited for the official result to come in and acted on interim results to task a political leader with government formation.

"All previous presidents have usually given the mandate on the same day as they receive the resignation of the outgoing prime minister, or on the next day," political analyst Murat Yetkin said.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu offered his resignation to the president on June 9 and was accepted, although he was asked to remain as acting prime minister until the formation of the new government. But Erdogan did not give the mandate to Davutoglu to start coalition talks.

Moreover, Erdogan could have done so after the election of the parliament speaker last Wednesday. Yet he has decided not to do it in this case as well.

"It is the president himself who wants to deliberately lead the country into an early election," said Semih Yalcin, deputy chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the third largest party in Turkey.

Erdogan wants to profit from a potential failure of the political parties to strike a coalition government, in the hope that his favorite party AKP could increase its support in the early election, Idris Gursoy, a political analyst, told Xinhua.

"The president believes the AKP will win enough number of seats in the parliament in an early election to form a government without needing a coalition partner," he said.

Political parties have 45 days to set up a coalition government right after the president gives a mandate. If they fail to come to an agreement on that, the president can call for a snap election.

Davutoglu, acting prime minister and APK chairman, will be the first one to take a shot at government formation. If he fails, the president will give the mandate to the CHP leader, Kilicdaroglu.

"The president is putting off efforts to forge a (coalition) government as he seeks to determine the date of an early election based on a plan in his head," CHP lawmaker Gaye Usluer said.

Numan Kurtulmus, deputy prime minister in the care-taker AKP government, said Erdogan may give the mandate to Davutoglu this week. Yet Turkish analysts are not so optimistic with the timetable that may be thwarted by other developments.

Citing back-stage political debates, Yetkin said even if Erdogan gives Davutoglu the mandate this week, the talks could be interrupted by the religious festival in the second part of the month and the prime minister-chaired high-level meeting on the promotion of officers in the Turkish military in the first week of August. Endit