Ball in Erdogan's court as Turkish PM set to return government mandate
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will return the mandate to form the next government to President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday after weeks of talks with opposition parties failed to produce a coalition, a senior ruling party official said, according to Reuters.
Under the terms of the constitution, Erdogan could dissolve Davutoglu's caretaker cabinet and call for the formation of an interim power-sharing government to lead Turkey to a new election in the autumn, if no deal is reached by Aug. 23.
Such a temporary arrangement would theoretically hand cabinet positions to four parties with deep ideological divisions, leaving policy-making paralysed and deepening instability which has sent the lira to a series of record lows.
The currency hit a new low of 2.8776 against the dollar overnight.
The ruling AK Party failed to hold on to its majority in a June 7 election, leaving it unable to govern alone for the first time since coming to power in 2002. That plunged Turkey into uncertainty not seen since the fragile coalitions of the 1990s.