Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its nationalist alliance partner are seen to be attracting support from about 54 percent of voters in the June 24 snap parliamentary elections, a MetroPoll survey indicated on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Turks will vote in both parliamentary and presidential elections that will herald the switch to a powerful executive presidency narrowly approved in a referendum last year and championed by incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Conducted on 2,063 people in 28 Turkish provinces, the poll showed support for Erdoğan ‘s AKP at 48 percent, while its alliance partner, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) was expected to garner 6 percent of the vote.
The survey showed three other parties attracting more than 10 percent of the vote, the minimum threshold needed to enter Parliament. It put support at 21 percent for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), 12 percent for the newly founded İYİ (Good) Party and 10 percent for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
Like the AKP and MHP, the opposition CHP and İYİ Party are also members of an alliance, easing pressure on the smaller parties to exceed the 10 percent threshold.
The survey was conducted between April 13 and 20. President Erdoğan announced the snap elections on April 18.
Earlier this week, Erdoğan said the AKP needed a parliamentary majority to pass constitutional amendments until the new executive presidential system becomes fully functional.
“Aside from presidential decrees, there will be a need to make several legal changes, implement new regulations or even constitutional amendments until the new system is fully functional,” Erdoğan told lawmakers in Parliament.