Turkey's ruling party wins decisively in election

KONYA , Turkey, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- A decisive victory for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party in weekend elections indicates it has enough seats in parliament for one-party rule.

The state-run Anadolu News Agency reported Ergodan's AKP Party, which lost its parliamentary majority in June elections, received 49.4 percent of the vote. Its main opposition, the Republican People's Party, or CHP, received 25.5 percent.

The government has been criticized for stifling personal and press freedoms, but Erdogan called on the world to respect the country's vote.

"The national will manifest itself on Nov. 1 in favor of stability. Now a party with some 50 percent [of the vote] in Turkey has attained power ... This should be respected by the whole world, but I have not seen such maturity," he said in his party's victory speech in his hometown of Konya.

Three weeks ago, during the election campaign, two Islamic State suicide bombers killed more than 100 people at an Ankara peace rally. Instead of unifying the electorate, the incident intensified divisions in Turkish politics.

The rally, of leftists and trade unionists, called for an end to fighting between the government and the Kurdish minority, and came after a fragile peace between the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and the government. Detention of a large number of people, in a crackdown against terrorism, has served to stifle the country's media.

The new government still has the PKK with which to deal, as well as accusations the country is not adequately fighting the IS -- also identified as Daesh, ISIS and ISIL. An economic crisis is looming, although the shaky Turkish lira has risen in value recently, and some observers fear the AKP party's strength in the election could embolden the government to undertake more oppressive measures against its rivals.