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Turkey elects on the national level a legislature. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi) has 550 members, elected for a four year term (five years before the 2007 referendum) by a system based on proportional representation. To participate in the distribution of seats, a party must obtain at least 10% of the votes cast at the national level as well as a percentage of votes in the contested district according to a complex formula . The president was elected for a seven year term by the parliament prior to the 2007 constitutional changes, and will be elected for at most two five-year terms by the people in the future.

Turkey has a multi-party system, with two or three strong parties and often a fourth party that is electorally successful. Since 1950, parliamentary politics has been dominated by conservative parties. Even the ruling AKP, although its core is accused of cadring root from the Islamist current, tends to identify itself with the "tradition" of DP. The leftist parties, most notable of which is CHP, draw much of their support from big cities, coastal regions, professional middle-class, civil service, military officers and the religious minority of Alevi.

The Turkish general election, 2007 were held on 22 July 2007.

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Main article: Turkish general election, 2007

The results of the parliamentary elections of July 22, 2007 are as follows:

e • d **Summary of the 22 July 2007 Grand National Assembly of Turkey election results**
Parties	Votes			Seats
Parties	No.	%	±	No.	±
Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP)	16,340,534	46.66	+12.38	341	–23
Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP)	7,300,234	20.85	+1.46	112	–66
Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP)	5,004,003	14.29	+5.93	71	+71
Democratic Party (Demokrat Parti, DP)	1,895,807	5.41	–4.13	0	±0
Independents (Bağımsız)	1,822,253	5.20	+4.20	26	+18
Youth Party (Genç Parti, GP)	1,062,352	3.03	–4.22	0	±0
Felicity Party (Saadet Partisi, SP)	817,843	2.34	–0.15	0	±0
Independent Turkey Party (Bağımsız Türkiye Partisi, BTP)	178,694	0.51	+0.03	0	±0
People's Ascent Party (Halkın Yükselişi Partisi, HYP)	175,544	0.50	+0.50	0	±0
Workers' Party (İşçi Partisi, İP)	127,220	0.36	–0.15	0	±0
Enlightened Turkey Party (Aydınlık Türkiye Partisi, ATP)	99,938	0.29	+0.29	0	±0
Communist Party of Turkey (Türkiye Komünist Partisi, TKP)	77,657	0.22	+0.03	0	±0
Freedom and Solidarity Party (Özgürlük ve Dayanışma Partisi, ÖDP)	51,945	0.15	–0.19	0	±0
Liberal Democratic Party (Liberal Demokrat Parti, LDP)	36,717	0.10	–0.18	0	±0
Labour Party (Emek Partisi, EMEP)	26,574	0.08	+0.08	0	±0
Total (turnout 84.4%)	35,017,315	100.0	—	550	—
Source: Seçim 2007 The independents' seats are divided as follows:^[1] 22 Democratic Society Party members or supporters and Libertarian Socialist leader Ufuk Uras Great Union Party leader Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu former prime minister Mesut Yılmaz of the Motherland Party former True Path Party member Kamer Genç 13 members of the Democratic Left Party were elected under the Republican People's Party banner. [2]

Note: The age of candidacy was lowered to 25 ahead of this election, which might make this the first Turkish election to produce MPs below the age of 30.