Stiffer Opposition For Turkish Government

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28421, 30 October 1957, Page 10

Stiffer Opposition For Turkish Government

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

Rec. 9 p.m.) ISTANBUL. October 28.

Mr Andan Menderes, the ’Turkish Prime Minister for the last seven years, was today returned to power for another four years —but with much stiffer opposition in Parliament than ever before.

His ruling Democrat Party is expected to have 424 scats and its Republican opponents 178 when the final result is known. Ten returns have still to come and the Democrats are leading in all of them. The House this time has. 610 seats. In the old Assembly, which had only 542 seals, the Democrats had 472 members and the Republicans only 31. Mr Menderes has an over-all majority, which although tho-

roughly stable in Western eyes, is weak by Turkish standards. Tnere is speculation in local political circles whether in the coming months some of his followers will desert and drift across to the Republican Party. The opposition quickly gave evidence of its militant spirit when the veteran leader, Mr Ismet Inonu. a former president and the right-hand man of Kemal Ataturk, claimed his party would have won the election but for the irregular methods the government used over radio networks to influence voters. The Government also excluded the names of others from the electoral lists, he claimed. Foreign observers touring the polling stations confirmed that numerous citizens complained of being omitted from the lists. The observers regarded the poor economic situation as the prime reason for the swing of popular support to the Republicans.