Sunday’s local elections in Turkey resulted in another Justice and Development Party (AKP) victory.  Winning just shy of forty percent of the national vote was, however, less than what Recep Tayyip Erdogan hoped for.  As BBC notes, “The prime minister had boasted that his party would surpass the 47% share of the vote it gained in 2007, but instead suffered its first fall in support since sweeping to power in 2002.” 

The party, which came to power over six years ago, relies on what the FT calls “overwhelming popular support to fend off pressure from a secularist military and judiciary suspicious of its religious tendencies.”