1987 Turkish general election

General elections were held in Turkey on 29 November 1987. This election is important for two events; the Military junta's restrictions on former politicians were lifted so they joined to the political scene again, whilst the Motherland Party retained its majority in the parliament by losing votes but gaining more seats, thanks to the electoral system of the country. Voter turnout was 93.3%.[2]

1987 Turkish general election

29 November 1987
Total of 450 seats of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey 226 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	93.3%[1] 1.0pp
Leader Turgut Özal Erdal İnönü Süleyman Demirel Party ANAP SHP DYP Leader since 20 May 1983 30 May 1986 6 September 1987 Leader's seat İstanbul İzmir Isparta Last election 211 seats, 45.14% 117 seats, 30.46% New party Seats won 292 99 59 Seat change 81 18 59 Popular vote 8,704,335 5,931,000 4,587,062 Percentage 36.31% 24.74% 19.10% Swing 8.83% 5.72% 19.1%
Prime Minister before election Turgut Özal ANAP Elected Prime Minister Turgut Özal ANAP

The 1987 election saw the return of the religious oriented base of Necmettin Erbakan and the symbol names of the politics in the 1970s, Bülent Ecevit and Süleyman Demirel. Bülent Ecevit led DSP because CHP was closed down after the coup of 1980. Süleyman Demirel founded DYP to challenge the power of Turgut Özal on conservative liberal votes. The elections of 1987 were marked with harsh restrictions on televised publicity for the opposition parties. Different as 1983 there was no televised debate between the presidential candidates. Only one week before the elections political infomercials from the different parties were aired. The SHP gained the most benefit of the infomercials, as the SHP polled about 30% compared to the 18% before screening the infomercial.[3]

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Motherland Party	8,704,335	36.3	292	+81
	Social Democratic Populist Party	5,931,000	24.7	99	New
	True Path Party	4,587,062	19.1	59	New
	Democratic Left Party	2,044,576	8.5	0	New
	Welfare Party	1,717,425	7.2	0	New
	Nationalist Workers Party	701,538	2.9	0	New
	Reformist Democracy Party	196,272	0.8	0	New
	Independents	89,421	0.4	0	0
Invalid/blank votes		631,912	–	–	–
Total		24,603,541	100	450	+51
Source: Nohlen et al.

References

1. "MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMLERİ 1923 - 2011" (PDF) (in Turkish). Yüksek Seçim Kurulu. p. 5. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
2. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p258 ISBN 0-19-924958-X
3. Wuthrich, F. Michael (2015-07-28). National Elections in Turkey: People, Politics, and the Party System. Syracuse University Press. p. 191. ISBN 9780815634126.