Justice And Development Party

Morocco began counting votes after a record low turnout in parliamentary elections that were expected to show gains for Islamists pressing an anti-corruption message. Political analysts say the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party has a chance of winning Cabinet posts if it emerges as the party with the most seats. The party emphasizes conservative values and ethics, a message popular in lower-income urban suburbs.

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party reelected Recep Tayyip Erdogan as leader, restoring him to the post a day after the country's highest court ruled that he had given it up. The Constitutional Court had said Erdogan effectively surrendered the post when he resigned as a founding member of the party last year in an earlier case. There's no barrier to Erdogan being reelected as leader, Chief Justice Mustafa Bumin said.

A party with Islamic roots formed Turkey's first majority government in 15 years, promising to maintain close ties with the West, eradicate torture by security forces and lift the country from its worst economic recession since World War II. The new prime minister, Abdullah Gul, announced a 25-member Cabinet, including Ali Babacan, 35, a Western-educated former financial consultant as economy minister. The Justice and Development Party won 363 of parliament's 550 seats in elections Nov. 3.

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said the country's secular system of government faced its gravest danger since the founding of the republic in 1923, in comments seen as a direct attack against the ruling Justice and Development Party ahead of a parliamentary vote next month that could give Turkey its first head of state with Islamist roots.

Morocco's conservative Istiqlal party won the most seats in parliamentary elections, allowing it to form the next government with its current ruling coalition, final results showed. The Istiqlal, or Independence, party won 52 seats, ahead of the opposition Islamist Justice and Development party, which had 46 seats, the Interior Ministry said. When it became clear the Islamist party would only take second place, it accused unnamed opponents of buying votes to skew the results.

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer approved legal changes that open the way for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the ruling party, to run for parliament and take over the post of prime minister. Erdogan was barred from public office because of a jail sentence in 1999 for inciting religious hatred. He can now stand for election in February. Sezer's Web site said he had ratified the constitutional changes.

Voters deprived an Islamist party of an expected parliamentary victory, handing it instead to a secular conservative party that is a member of the ruling coalition, according to preliminary results. If confirmed, the results would mean continuity for a key U.S. ally in the Arab world. The conservative and secular Istiqlal party won five more seats than the Justice and Development Party, or PJD, whose growing strength has worried its secular rivals.

An Islamic party that bans alcohol and favors veils for women more than doubled its number of seats in parliamentary elections, according to preliminary government figures released today. With a few seats still undecided, the Justice and Development Party had 37 in the 325-member House of Representatives, Interior Minister Driss Jettou said on Moroccan television. That more than doubled the 14 seats previously held by the party.

A new parliament was sworn in Saturday with the Islamist-rooted ruling party keeping its majority after elections last month and pro-Kurdish deputies joining for the first time in more than a decade. Parliament's first big issue is choosing a new president, and Turkey's secular establishment fears the ruling Justice and Development Party will try to force through its candidate.

Re "Ruling party in Turkey wins big," July 23 It appears that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party have taken a page from the playbook of George W. Bush. By blending religious fundamentalism and free-market capitalism, they manage to simultaneously erode, if slowly, secular freedom, while boosting their nation's economy.