Roundup: Turkey strives for coalition gov't amid uncertainty

Turkish president kicked off belated coalition talks on Thursday by mandating the chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to form coalition government.

Ahmet Davutoglu, the AKP leader and acting prime minister, was officially tasked by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to start rounds of negotiations with other political parties.

The presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin broke the news after the meeting between Erdogan and Davutoglu. The fresh mandate officially started 45-day period for political parties to try to form a coalition.

Davutoglu is expected to start negotiations with other three parties represented in the Parliament after his two-day visit to Bosnia on Friday and Saturday.

"I plan to make the first round of coalition talks next week," he said in a speech to lawmakers from his party at the Parliament on Thursday.

If he fails to deliver a coalition that will secure vote of confidence in the Parliament, the Republican Peoples' Party (CHP), the second largest political party, will take its turn.

The Turkish president may call for a snap election if no parties agree on a workable coalition deal within 45 days.

On June 7 national elections, no single party received the majority of seats in the Parliament to form a single-party government.

If the coalition is to be formed, most analysts expect the AKP will strike a deal with either center-left the Republican People's Party (CHP) or pro-Turkish the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

Many see the coalition between the Islamist AKP and MHP is more likely given the closeness between the support base between the two parties.

Yasar Yakis, former foreign minister, said another reason why AKP and MHP is likely option is that the AKP "will have to give it a smaller number of ministerial posts" to the MHP in a coalition deal as opposed to the CHP that has more seats than MHP in the Parliament.

"All options are now theoretically open for all varieties of coalition," he said although both the MHP and pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party both has given conflicting signals to making a deal with the AKP.

The CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu laid out 14-point principles as conditions to enter into a coalition with the AKP that includes reopening corruption investigations and rolling back anti-democratic bills.

In the 550-seat Parliament, the AKP has 258 deputies, the CHP has 132 deputies, and the MHP and the HDP each has 80 deputies.

Any coalition would have to secure 277 or simple majority to obtain a vote of confidence.

Some believe the Turkish president is planning to call for an early election no matter how the negotiations among all four parties proceed.

The fact that Erdogan waited for more than a month to task a political leader to start coalition talks after the election, an unusual move given the past presidents rushed to mandate deputies, is read as an another signal that he wants to go an early election.

Erdogan hopes that early elections will restore his power and recover the lost base for the AKP, resulting yet another single party government.

In the meantime, however, Turkey will be facing an uncertainty in its politics.

Absence of a strong government would complicate Turkey's efforts in tackling economic difficulties at home and security challenges at the border with Syria. Endit