ANKARA: Lawmakers here today began taking their oaths in Turkey’s new parliament, with the ruling party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan needing to rely on nationalist allies to ensure an overall majority.

Legislative polls were held simultaneously on June 24 with presidential polls, where Erdogan won a new mandate to extend his 15-year domination of Turkey under a new system that gives him greater powers.

But Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was less dominant in the parliamentary elections, winning 295 seats and falling slightly short of an outright majority in the 600 MP chamber.

To ensure a majority it will have to rely on its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) which won 49 seats in a far stronger performance than was predicted.

Analysts say the MHP could push the AKP into a harder line on Kurdish issues and foreign policy. The opposition will be led by the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), which won 146 seats in the parliament.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which has been hit by a spate of detentions of its top figures, is the second largest opposition party with 67 seats. The right-wing Iyi (Good) Party of Meral Aksener enters parliament for the first time after it was set up in October last year with 43 seats.