Turkey may decrease vote threshold for parliament

By Kamila Aliyeva

Turkey may reduce the threshhold for a political party to enter parliament to 5 percent of the national vote, Turkish media reported citing sources in the government.

The current voting system sets the bar at 10 percent. This issue is currently being discussed in the government, the sources said on June 16.

The percentage is a substantially higher bar compared with other countries. For instance, Germany has a 5 percent threshold, Sweden’s is set at 4 percent, while Denmark has a 2 percent threshold to enter the parliament.

Turkey’s parliament, the Grand National Assembly, has 550 seats.

In the parliamentary elections held in Turkey in 2015, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkey won 40.9 percent of the vote, the Republican People's Party (CHP) - 25 percent, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) - 16.3 percent, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) - 13.1 percent.

The other political parties as a whole gained 4.7 percent of the vote.