The spokesman said the increase was "in keeping with general practice", adding that "some other authorities set the threshold for levying the charge much lower".
It is hard to see how Mr Erdogan's lot can be kept out of power in the longer run (a general election is due by April 2004 at the latest) unless parliament passed a bill to lower the threshold to let other parties in.
And if there were a general election, pollsters say that neither his party nor the other two in the government coalition would even cross the threshold of 10% of the national vote to get seats in parliament.
That "something" could be hormone levels in utero, epigenetic factors that turn autism susceptibility genes "on" and "off" during development, or the fact that young girls have in general better social skills than boys and so need a bigger "dose" of what causes ASD to cross that threshold to being impaired.