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Election

I. Read the article. Comment on the meaning of the highlighted words and expressions; summarize the text.

Turkey's ruling party decisively wins 3rd term in office

By Ivan Watson and Yesim Comert

Istanbul, Turkey – The party of Turkey's ruling prime minister sailed to an easy victory in parliamentary elections on Sunday, winning a third term in office with 49.9% of the vote with 99.9% of the votes counted.

For nearly a decade, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics while also defining his country's assertive new role as an economic and diplomatic power in the region.

Campaigning on his record of unprecedented economic stability and prosperity during nine years in power, Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) succeeded in slightly increasing his mandate. The AKP won 49.9% of the vote, an increase of nearly 4 percentage points from the party's performance in the 2007 parliamentary election.

“We are thrilled after winning one out of every two voters’ votes in the country,” Erdogan said late Sunday night.

In a victory speech delivered from the balcony of his party headquarters in Ankara, Erdogan made a pledge to serve all Turks, regardless of ethnicity or religious sect.

“To the Turkish nation, whether you voted for AKP or not, the real winner of the 2011 elections is Turkey,” Erdogan roared, to a crowd of flag-waving supporters.

“No one should have any doubt, whether you voted for us or not, all of your beliefs and values and lifestyles are our pride.”

“People voted overall for stability. It's the same rule in most democracies. People vote on bread and butter issues”. Their vote is based on their living standards. The fact that Turkey’s economy is growing at 9%.

Prime Minister Erdogan added another electoral victory feather to his cap. But he fell short of capturing the two-thirds majority in parliament that would have allowed the AKP to unilaterally rewrite Turkey's constitution. Erdogan has made no secret of the fact that he intends to rewrite the constitution, a deeply flawed document drafted by a military junta that seized power
in 1980.

And on Sunday night, Erdogan made it clear a new constitution would still be a top priority.

“The nation has assigned us the task of creating a new constitution,” he said. “We are not going to close our doors. We will go to the opposition. If they accept, we will sit down and work towards consensus with civic groups, with parties outside of the parliament, with academics.”

II. Read the information below. Focus on the highlighted words and
expressions.

Election

An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individualto hold public office .Elections have been the usual mechanismbywhichmodern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government. This process is also used in many other private and business organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations.

The universal use of elections as a tool for selecting representatives in modern democracies is in contrast with the practice in the democratic archetype, ancient Athens. Elections were considered an oligarchic institution and most political offices were filled using sortition, also known as allotment, by which officeholders were chosen by lot.

Electoral reform describes the process of introducing fair electoral systems where they are not in place, or improving the fairness or effectiveness of existing systems. Psephology is the study of results and other statistics relating to elections (especially with a view to predicting future results).

To elect means “to choose or make a decision” (For example, in contract law, if one party breaches the agreement, the other party may "elect" whether to continue or repudiate the contract, and so sometimes other formsof ballot such as the referendum are referred to as elections, especially in the United States.

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 531