Turks Return Government

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32118, 14 October 1969, Page 17

Turks Return Government

( fl .Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) ANKARA (Turkey), October 13. The Prime Minister (Mr Suleyman Demirel) was set for another four years in office today with his conservative Justice Party again in firm control of the 450member National Assembly.

Although the 46-year-old Prime Minister declined to claim victory last night, results of all but 10 returns from yesterday’s election gave the Justice Party the same 255 seats it held in the outgoing Assembly. The major surprises of the election—the third since the 1960 military coup—were the strong support for the Republican People’s Party of a former President Mr Ismet Inonu and the big losses sustained by the six minor parties.

The Republicans, who fought on new left-of-centre policies introduced by the party secretary-general, Mr Bulent Ecevit, were set to increase their representation from 133 tn 145 seats.

Only one of the minority parties—the republican splinter Trust Party—looked likely to get the 10-seat minimum required to obtain the privileges of a recognised Parliamentary group. Economic Progress

Mr Demirel, who had campaigned on a record of economie progress in his last four

years in office, welcomed the likelihood of only two important parties, which, he said, would make parliamentary work easier. “Multi-party systems tend to degenerate a democracy,” he told reporters outside his home. Low Poll There was an unexpectedly low turn-out by the nation’s 14 million eligible voters, and the poll was estimated to be about 60 per cent, compared with 71 per cent in the 1965 election. In Istanbul and the Mediterranean town of Adana the turn-out was only about 45 per cent. The election also was marked by scattered incidents of violence. According to reports reaching Ankara, two voters were shot dead in separate incidents in isolated provinces of eastern Antolia, and officials of the minority Reliance Party reported that one of their supporters was killed after a political argument near Mount Ararat Another eight people were reported injured in disturbances.