note: in October 2007 Turkish voters approved a referendum package of constitutional amendments including a provision for direct presidential elections
Legislative branch:
unicameral Grand National Assembly of Turkey or Turkiye Buyuk Millet Meclisi (550 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
elections: last held on 22 July 2007 (next to be held by July 2011)
election results: percent of vote by party - AKP 46.7%, CHP 20.8%, MHP 14.3%, independents 5.2%, other 13.0%; seats by party - AKP 341, CHP 112, MHP 71, independents 26; note - seats by party as of 15 November 2010 - AKP 335, CHP 101, MHP 70, BDP 20, DSP 6, DP 1, TP 1, independents 7, vacant 9 (BDP entered parliament as independents; DSP entered parliament on CHP's party list; DP and TP switched to their respective parties after having been elected to parliament as an independent or on the list of another party); only parties surpassing the 10% threshold are entitled to parliamentary seats
Judicial branch:
Constitutional Court; High Court of Appeals (Yargitay); Council of State (Danistay); Court of Accounts (Sayistay); Military High Court of Appeals; Military High Administrative Court
Political parties and leaders:
Democratic Left Party or DSP [Masum TURKER]; Democratic Party or DP
[Husamettin CINDORUK]; Equality and Democracy Party or EDP [Ziva
HALIS]; Felicity Party or SP [Necmettin ERBAKAN] (sometimes
translated as Contentment Party); Freedom and Solidarity Party or
ODP [Alper TAS]; Grand Unity Party or BBP [Yalcin TOPCU]; Justice
and Development Party or AKP [Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN]; Nationalist
Movement Party or MHP [Devlet BAHCELI]; Peace and Democracy Party or
BDP [Selahattin DEMIRTAS]; People's Rise Party or HSP [Numan
KURTULMUS]; Republican People's Party or CHP [Kemal KILICDAROGLU];
Turkey Party [Abdullatif SENER]
note: the parties listed above are some of the more significant of the 61 parties that Turkey had according to the Ministry of Interior statistics current as of May 2009