The days in power for the Prime Minister of Turkey, Mr Bulent Ecevit, are coming to an end. Despite his coalition government being undermined greatly by waves of defections, he insisted that he would remain in office for the remaining two years of his term but parliament has decided otherwise.
Wednesday's vote in favour of early elections means not just that Turkey will go to the polls 18 months ahead of schedule but that Mr Ecevit and the party which he leads will struggle to be of any consequence in the next parliament.
Mr Ecevit has warned repeatedly that early elections will play into the hands of the pro-Islamic Justice and Development party, perhaps putting them into power and thus destabilising the country's fragile secular state. He has also suggested that early elections will allow the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democracy party to garner more than 10 per cent of the vote needed to gain seats in parliament and thereby call into question the country's unitary nature.
However, Mr Ecevit's rivals are having none of it and see the Prime Minister's protestations as nothing more than a failed government clinging on to power. The most popular opposition leader, Mr Ismail Cem, seems destined to get his new party into government. While he is a reformer, he will need to be cautious not to alienate the centre-right vote. The political spectrum could become extremely polarised if US military action against Iraq comes about.
Mr Cem , who was Turkey's formidable Foreign Minister for five years until he pulled away from Mr Ecevit, is more concerned about his country's application for membership of the EU than anything else. The membership issue dominates Turkish politics so much that the election is likely to turn into a referendum on the EU.
The EU itself will decide on a possible start for accession talks at the Copenhagen summit in December. But Copenhagen will give Turkey short shrift if the election result does not manifest a reforming government mandated and determined to implement the reforms required by membership, particularly on the economy and human rights. For this to happen Turkey badly needs the creation of a strong reformist alliance including Mr Cem and Mr Kemal Dervis, the popular economy minister who devised the IMF reform programme. Turkey however has had elections in the past which have just made matters worse. If the next government is an uneasy coalition of four or more parties, Mr Ecevit may still be proved right.