Turkey's ruling party the Justice and Development Party (AKP) garnered around 46.6 percent of the total votes in Sunday's national legislative elections, or some 342 seats in the 550-member Parliament, adequately enabling it to form a single-party government in coming days, according to the preliminary result.

The AKP's overwhelming victory showed that the party's performance in the past years is widely acknowledged by Turkish people. However, the new Parliament faces a host of thorny challenges, including a presidential election, membership negotiations with EU, violence by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)rebels, and growing divide over the role of Islam in Turkish society.

One of parliament's first jobs will be to elect a president. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists that Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister and his ally in the AKP, remains a candidate for the presidency, a step that might enable the Islamic-rooted party to control the parliament, government and presidency.

Analysts said that the AKP will first pursue president election inside the parliament in alliance with the independent lawmakers, which occupy around 26 seats, in order to obtain the 367 seats that required to produce a president. In case that the attempt fails, the AKP would seek to elect the next president through referendum.

Sunday's general elections are considered of paramount importance in determining the balance between Islam and secularism in the secular Muslim country with a population of some 70 million.

Turkish opposition parties accused the AKP of having a secret agenda to establish an Islamic state. The military, which views itself the ultimate safeguard of Turkey's secular state and has overthrown four governments in 50 years, appeared ready to intervene.

"Obviously (the results) give a mandate to AKP to go ahead," an analyst with Turkey's Daily Milliyet said, adding that the military would take calculated means of "making themselves felt" instead of "roll tanks out".

The ruling AKP came to power and run a single-party government since November 2002 after it won 363 seats in the parliament with 34.26 percent of votes in the last general elections. Since then, the AKP has been focusing on fighting corruption and poverty, stabilizing the economy, promoting Turkey's integration with the world, free and liberal entrepreneurship, membership in the EU and other issues. The ruling party's pragmatic agenda has reaped its benefits in terms of popularity among different segments of the society.

On the political and diplomatic fronts, Turkey has hastened its bid to achieve the EU membership, which greatly uplift the ruling party's status among Turkish people. However, the future Turkish government still faces major challenges in its efforts to accelerate the accession.

Turkey's EU entry talks, which begun in 2005, have been dogged by disputes and the EU has suspended talks on eight of 35 policy areas due to Turkey's refusal to open its ports to EU member Cyprus. France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, who took office earlier this year, has said he opposes Turkish EU membership.

To overtake the obstacles blocking Turkey's entry into EU will be the new government's important mission. Erdogan has vowed to take more economic, social and political reforms needed to join the EU despite scepticism over whether the bloc will ever let Turkey join.

Another task for the new government will be to decide whether Turkey should stage an offensive into northern Iraq despite the US and Iraqi objection. The PKK rebels has stepped up its attacks in southeastern Anatolia in recent months.

The US fears that this could destabilize the relatively peaceful region and further strain the already tense ties between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds, staunch allies of the US.

Erdogan said that he had invited his Iraqi counterpart Nuri al-Maliki to visit Ankara after the elections, to discuss the presence of PKK rebels in northern Iraq.

Accusing the US of failing to fulfill its pledges of curbing the PKK, Erdogan said he would seek trilateral talks in order to resolve the dispute.

Turkey has warned that it could send troops into northern Iraq if talks with Iraqi and US officials fail to produce effective measures against PKK rebels.

Turkish analysts expect a more highly charged political atmosphere in the post-election era, given the deep divisions on both the election of a new president and a possible northern Iraq incursion, local newspaper Today's Zaman said on Sunday.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2007)