State news agency says Turkey's ruling party won parliamentary majority

From the Associated Press

11:55 AM PDT, July 22, 2007

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's Islamic-rooted ruling party won parliamentary elections today, taking at least 331 of 550 seats despite warnings from the secular opposition that the government was a threat to secular traditions.

The state-run Anatolia news agency said the ruling Justice and Development Party had won with 85 percent of the votes counted. Two secular parties, the Republican People's Party and the Nationalist Action Party, won 124 seats and 76 seats respectively, Anatolia said. Independents won 19 seats.

Ruling party supporters gathered in front of their Istanbul branch office, clapping, dancing and waving flags depicting the party symbol, a light bulb. In Ankara, the capital, a jubilant crowd of several hundred whooped as they watched election results on a big television screen erected outside party headquarters.

One of parliament's first jobs will be to elect a president. The post is largely ceremonial, but the incumbent has the power to veto legislative bills and government appointments.

In May, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul abandoned his presidential bid after opponents said Gul's election would remove the last obstacle to an Islamic takeover of government, and the military -- instigator of past coups -- threatened to intervene to safeguard secularism.