En buyuk Turkiye!

At a scorching heat of 40 degrees yesterday held the general elections in Turkey to elect members to the 550 seat Parliament which will form a new government. Out of the country's population of 74 million people, around 42.5 million obligatory voters went to the polling stations where 14 parties and 700 independent candidates were competing to secure a five-year term in the Parliament.

Election campaign at Kizilay city center

I managed to see the process of voting when I followed his family to the school where the location of the poll stations were for his district. Instead of crossing the box for the party we vote for in Malaysia, here, they stamp "Evet" which means "Yes" in the box for the party they vote for. This time, however, a new step was imposed where voter's left forefinger was dipped with ink that will stain for the day in order to refrain them from voting again during this election. Take a look at this:

(candid pics of him voting! hehehe)

The finger (this is considered an extreme mild one, some infected the whole nail)

During the counting, the poll results were monitored live as if it was the stock market...

And here are the results:

Source: http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr

For the first time in 53 years a ruling party won an election victory with an increased number of votes in Turkey. How ironic when the hatred shown towards this party was pretty obvious with aggression from the opposition parties and demonstrations from the public. Although it was predicted that the rulling party would sit at a majority for a second term, however, the percentage of votes stormed everyone.

Let me give you some lil info about Turkey. A country that is unevenly divided between Europe and Asia, of which Istanbul is the only city of its border called Bosphorus and the rest is on the anatolian (asian) side. Despite the fact that Istanbul is the largest and most popular and crowded city in Turkey in addition to its industrial and commercial hub, many thought that it is the capital, but officially Ankara is where the government reside.

The Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk from the fall of Ottoman Empire. The ideology was centered on secularism and nationalism (I'm sure we have all read about him in our Form 2 History textbook which described him as the Father of Islamic modernization). 99% of the population are muslim but the society do not consider the country as an Islamic country due to its secular domination and the obscure Shariah Law. In the 1980s control over religion was tightened further with a ban on wearing the headscarf in universities and public offices because it was said that the cloth was a powerful symbol. And to my recent surprise, I was told that covering hair was never stated in the Quran. I am now wondering if the contents of Quran are being read the same in every "Islamic" country.

OK, just noticed that my blogs are beginning to sound serious and boring, so I will blog about my vacation next ;)