Will the Justice and Development (AK) Party riding on a wave of popularity after winning a massive 46.6 percent of the votes become the sole and undisputed power of the center right political movement in Turkey or will the former mainstream parties recover and make a comeback?

What seems clear at the moment is that AK Party is well established as the party of the center right where as all the others are in disarray.

The True Path Party (DYP) of Mehmet Agar which changed its name to Democrat Party (DP) just before the elections is dead. So is the Motherland Party led by Erkan Mumcu.

The two parties tried a disastrous merger bid just before the polls and failed badly. What went wrong and how all this impacted the elections remains to be seen. Talk of a possible merger between the two parties after the elections have also be pushed aside.

So the political doctors of Turkey attempted to perform a post mortem on the demise of the DP and the Motherland but ended up more confused.

The DP did badly in the polls while Motherland did not even participate. Agar has resigned and the DP has to elect a new chairman.

There was talk before the elections that former prime minister Mesut Yilmaz would be elected as independent deputy from the Black Sea city of Rize and would then move to unite the center right parties. But that was before the AK Party won a massive majority and qualified to become the sole and undisputed representative of the center right.

Yilmaz won election and is capable of bringing together some of his former colleagues but this will be an uphill fight. He first has to wait for the dust to settle. Besides there are others now who want to head the DP.

There are claims that Ankara Chamber of Trade chief Sinan Aygun who attempted to become a candidate from the DP but then quit wants to head the party and has the blessing of former president Suleyman Demirel, the mentor of the DP and DYP.

Meanwhile, Erkak Mumcu and Mehmet Agar have started a war of words accusing each other for the failure of their merger before the elections.

Mumcu says Agar and his colleagues were insincere and fraudulent. He says they did not keep their promises.

There were widespread claims that many people were asked to pay high sums to be included in the list of candidates for the DP. One person claims to have paid YTL 400,000 to be placed second in the list in the Aegean province of Manisa.

Agar denied the claims and said Mumcu should sit in his corner and shut up. He said Mumcu was involved in several deals behind his back.

Observers say if Yilmaz can find some funds and help the Motherland he can keep the party alive and may be revive it. But they doubt this and say Motherland is broke.

On the other hand DP has about 9 million dollars which makes it a party of attraction.

A merger may never happen in the center right. DP may get a new leader and try to regain some lost ground while Motherland may slide into the oblivion. Yilmaz may want to forge somekind iof alliance with the DP.