Turkey re-elects ruling party

Turkey's ruling party has won a third term in parliamentary elections. The victory of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was not as complete as his party had hoped. The Prime Minister’s Justice and Development fell short of a two-thirds majority in parliament, a shortcoming that will force it to seek support for constitutional change from other political groups.

Erdogan's party won 50 percent of the votes, according to TRT, the state-run television. It said the Republican People's Party, the main opposition group, had 26 percent of the vote. Speaking to supporters at a rally Sunday, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said his party aims at becoming the ruling party in the next 4 years.

In the past decade, the government has sharply reduced the political clout of the military, and taken some steps to ease restrictions on minorities, though reforms have slowed in recent years. Erdogan has promised that a new constitution would be more democratic than the one implemented under the tutelage of the military in 1982.

Listen to Sean-Patrick Lovett's report: