1991 Turkish general election

General elections were held in Turkey on 20 October 1991, to elect members to the 19th Grand National Assembly. It was the first by the ruling Motherland Party to be contested without its founding leader, Turgut Özal, who had become Turkish president two years previously. The result was a swing against Özal's former party in favour of its fierce centre-right rival, the True Path Party led by Süleyman Demirel. The vote saw two additional parties cross the 10 percent barrier to enter parliament. Necmettin Erbakan and his Welfare Party saw a party of religious background returned for the first time in 14 years. Welfare had a greatly increased share of the vote and took several key provinces, including Istanbul in 1994 local elections. Bülent Ecevit's Democratic Left Party also scraped through to win seven seats. Voter turnout was 83.9%.[2]

1991 Turkish general election

20 October 1991
Total of 450 seats of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey 226 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	83.9%[1] 9.4pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Süleyman Demirel Mesut Yılmaz Erdal İnönü Party DYP ANAP SHP Leader since 6 September 1987 15 June 1991 30 May 1986 Leader's seat Isparta Rize İzmir Last election 59 seats, 19.10% 292 seats, 36.31% 99 seats, 24.74% Seats won 178 115 88 Seat change 119 177 11 Popular vote 6,600,726 5,862,623 5,066,571 Percentage 27.03% 24.01% 20.75% Swing 7.93% 12.30% 3.99%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Necmettin Erbakan Bülent Ecevit Party Welfare DSP Leader since 11 October 1987 15 January 1989 Leader's seat Konya Zonguldak Last election no seats, 7.20% no seats, 8.50% Seats won 62 7 Seat change 62 7 Popular vote 4,121,355 2,624,301 Percentage 16.87% 10.74% Swing 9.67% 2.24%
Prime Minister before election Mesut Yılmaz ANAP Elected Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel DYP

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	True Path Party	6,600,726	27.0	178	+119
	Motherland Party	5,862,623	24.0	115	–177
	Social Democratic Populist Party	5,066,571	20.8	88	–11
	Welfare Party	4,121,355	16.9	62	+62
	Democratic Left Party	2,624,301	10.7	7	+7
	Socialist Party	108,369	0.4	0	New
	Independents	32,721	0.1	0	0
Invalid/blank votes		740,423	–	–	–
Total		25,157,089	100	450	0
Source: Nohlen et al.

References

1. "MİLLETVEKİLİ GENEL SEÇİMLERİ 1923 - 2011" (PDF) (in Turkish). Yüksek Seçim Kurulu. p. 5. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
2. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p258 ISBN 0-19-924958-X