No coalition government without AK Party: senior MHP official

Mevlüt Karakaya, Vice Chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), hinted at an AKP-MHP coalition on Thursday saying that there can be no coalition government without AK Party.

Speaking to BBC Turkish, Karakaya said "Election results showed that Turkish people elected 258 deputies from AK Party, and gave the message to AK Party that '"you will not be in charge by yourself anymore'","

Reiterating that his party will not be a part of any coalition with pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Karakaya said that "ending the reconciliation process" and "President must remain above party politics" will be the essential conditions for MHP to be in a coalition government.

MHP does not favor a coalition with the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) with the HDP in it. But without the HDP, the MHP and CHP do not have sufficient seats to form a coalition government.

Party's leader Devlet Bahçeli also ruled out minority government options and on the night of the elections he said they would be eager to be the opposition to a government formed between the others.

Time has yet to show whether the AK Party will be able to find a coalition partner other than the MHP, but it is not incorrect to say that the MHP seems to be obstructing the process with its firm stance, and early elections could soon be on the table.

The leaders of the other parties have been considering early elections as a setback to democracy and should only be a last resort.