ANKARA
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas has said his party is ready for an early election.
Speaking in Ankara on Saturday, Demirtas said: “If it is the election, we are not a party which is afraid [of it] or [wants to] avoid the election”.
“HDP is ready for a snap election whenever it is, this month, or next month, or in November,” he added.
He also claimed that there was an ongoing process in the country to close his party down.
“The objective is more like to exclude the party from any treasury grants rather than closing it,” Demirtas added.
Turkey gives treasury grants to each political party according to votes received in the election.
Demirtas' pro-Kurdish party had passed the 10 percent election threshold for the first time during the June 7 general election.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to form a new government on July 9.
Davutoglu now has less than a month left to form a government around his Justice and Development (AK) Party, which gained the largest share of parliamentary seats (258) in the June 7 general election.
Although the AK Party came in first, it did not win enough seats (276 seats) to form a majority government, so it must attempt to forge a coalition with one of three other parliamentary parties - the second place Republican People’s Party (CHP) with 132 seats, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) with 80 seats or the pro-Kurdish HDP with 80 seats.
If no coalition appears within this period, the country will have to hold an early election, most likely in the second half of November.
