Snap polls more likely in Turkey

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) (pictured above, right) emerged from more than two hours of talks with Devlet Bahceli (above, left), the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHO), on Monday to announce that they had been unable to lay the groundwork for the formation of a coalition.

"Mr. Bahceli told me clearly that he saw no possibility to form a government with the AKP," he told reporters in the capital, Ankara.

The prime minister added that Bahceli had also ruled out propping up the AKP if it sought to form a minority government.

"Our preconditions ... have not been met by the AKP and therefore the basis for a coalition government has not been formed," a statement released by Bahceli said.

Davutoglu concluded that he had exhausted all options to form a coalition that the Islam-rooted AKP would need to form a parliamentary majority.

On Thursday, he announced that several weeks of coalition talks with the party that finished second in the June polls, the Republican People's Party (CHP) had collapsed.

"The current state of affairs does not point to the possibility of a coalition. I will return the mandate if necessary after discussing it with the president," Davutoglu said.

Possible renewed majority for AKP?

If Davutoglu were to return his mandate to form a government to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the head of state could give the leader of the CHP the next crack at cobbling to together a coalition. However, Erdogan, a cofounder of the AKP and Davutoglu's predecessor as premier, is thought to favor calling early polls, in the hope that his party can win back the majority that it had held for more than a decade. Two recent polls indicated that this could be a distinct possibility.

This comes with Turkey involved in airstrikes against "Islamic State" jihadists in Syria and Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey, following a wave of attacks inside the country.

It is not clear when the snap elections could be held, but some pundits have pointed to November 22 as a possible date.

The loss of the AKP's majority in the June election has meant that Erdogan has been forced to put his plans to rewrite the constitution to create a more powerful executive presidency on ice - at least for now.

pfd/kms (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)