TURKEY : Islamic Party Falls Short of Mandate

An Islamic movement that wants to turn Muslim Turkey away from the West won weekend general elections by a slim margin, the state-run TRT-1 television station said, but its gains fell far short of what it needed to form a government alone. The election was considered a virtual referendum on whether Turkey should reaffirm its secular system or move toward religious rule. But while the Islamic Welfare Party seemed headed to be the biggest vote-getter, the results did not constitute a mandate. Unofficial returns showed that with 96% of precincts reporting, Welfare had 21% of the vote. Prime Minister Tansu Ciller’s True Path Party and her chief center-right opposition, the Motherland Party of ex-Premier Mesut Yilmaz, had just under 20% each.