Turkey's ruling AK Party on Monday celebrated its decisive victory in a parliamentary election, but strong nationalist gains dented its majority and could hamper reforms crucial to its European Union bid.
With all votes counted from Sunday's poll, unofficial results gave the Islamist-rooted AK Party 46.5 percent, up more than 12 points on 2002, but a more united opposition means it will get 340 out of 550 seats, slightly fewer than before.
It was a personal triumph for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a controversial but very popular politician, who called the poll early after Turkey's secular elite, including army generals, torpedoed his choice of an ex-Islamist ally as the next president.
Financial markets welcomed the pro-business AK Party's triumph. The lira currency traded at its highest levels against the dollar in more than two years and bonds and shares soared.
The head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, congratulated Erdogan on his "impressive" win.
Newspapers hailed the outcome as a victory for democracy.
"This (result) is the people's memorandum," said the liberal Radikal daily, in a reference to an army memorandum in April that derailed the presidential election in parliament and forced Erdogan to call the parliamentary poll months ahead of schedule.
The staunchly secular army, which ousted an Islamist predecessor of Erdogan's party 10 years ago, had objected to the candidacy of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, fearing that as president he would erode the separation of religion and state.
"This election is a vote to restore democracy in Turkey. It has to be read in this way," Ihsan Dagi of Ankara's Middle East Technical University told CNN Turk television on Monday.
Addressing jubilant supporters at the lavish new party headquarters in Ankara on Sunday night, Erdogan was greeted with chants of "Abdullah Gul -- president", but it remains unclear whether he will risk a fresh confrontation with the secularists over the presidency.
