ANKARA, Turkey - A day after winning elections, Turkey's ruling party said Monday it would seek a compromise on presidential elections that had sparked tensions between the Islamic-oriented government and the military-led, secular establishment.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development party, which has espoused Western-style reforms despite having roots in political Islam, won 46.6 per cent of votes, according to unofficial results. State-run Anatolia news agency projected the party would take 340 of the 550 seats in Parliament.
The new government faces a series of challenges, including a presidential election, Kurdish rebel violence and lingering tension over the role of Islam in society.
"We are prepared for a compromise,'' Justice party legislator Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat told private news channel NTV.
Turnout in Sunday's election was more than 84 per cent, and voting was largely peaceful, election officials said.
The election was called early to defuse a political crisis over the ruling party's choice of presidential candidate that caused tensions with the military-led, secular elite, and supporters flouted Erdogan's win by a wide margin as a rebuttal of their intervention in presidential election process.
Soon after the party's victory, Erdogan, a devout Muslim, pledged to safeguard the country's secular traditions and do whatever the government deemed necessary to fight separatist Kurdish rebels. He also promised to press ahead with economic reforms and efforts to make the Muslim country of 73 million a member of the European Union.
"We will never make concessions over the values of people, the basic principles of our republic. This is our promise. We will embrace Turkey as a whole without discriminating,'' he said at a rally in the capital, Ankara.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed Erdogan's victory.
"This comes at an important moment for the people of Turkey as the country moves forward with political and economic reforms,'' Barroso said in a statement.
The EU chief said that Erdogan "has given his personal commitment to the sustained movement towards'' the EU.
The stock market rose in morning trading Monday over expectation of continuity in economic reforms and in Turkey's troubled efforts to join the European Union.
Under Erdogan, inflation has dropped, foreign investment has increased, and the economy has grown at an annual average of seven per cent.
The military-backed, secular establishment, was concerned that Erdogan and his allies were plotting to scrap Turkey's secular traditions despite their openness to the West.
Erdogan attributed his party's win to public reaction to military interference in his choice of presidential candidate. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was forced to abandon 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.
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. It was not clear if Erdogan, emboldened by the election victory, would again push for Gul's candidacy or nominate a compromise candidate so as not to raise tensions.
The government will have to decide how to deal with violence by Kurdish rebels seeking autonomy. NATO member Turkey is considering whether to stage an offensive into northern Iraq against separatist Kurdish rebels who are based there.
According to projected results, 50 female legislators are expected to enter the Parliament, bringing the share of them in the Parliament to an all-time high of almost 10 per cent, the Milliyet newspaper said.
Fourteen parties and 700 independent candidates competed for a total of 42.5 million eligible voters. Voting is compulsory in Turkey, though fines for failing to vote are rarely imposed, and 2002 election turnout was 79 per cent.
