A survey conducted by the Metropoll polling company suggests that 58.9 percent of Turks prefer a parliamentary system of governance over a presidential model, the Diken news website reported on Wednesday.
The company released the June edition of its poll, titled “The pulse of Turkey,” based on a survey carried out on 1,613 people June 14-15, aimed mainly at measuring the influence of election campaigns on voter trends.
The result was interpreted as a significant increase in disapproval of the presidential system as 48.59 percent of Turks had voted against its adoption in an April 2017 referendum.
The referendum was spearheaded by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in order to grant more executive powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as well as enable him to be affiliated with the party again as the old system stipulated that the president should be impartial.
When asked how they would vote if the referendum were held today, only 39.4 of participants said they would support it, while in 2017 the amendments were successfully passed with 51.41 percent support.
Moreover, those who found the new system to be unsuccessful included 13 percent of the voter base of the AKP, which sponsored the referendum in alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
Among those who reported themselves to be MHP supporters, 41 percent expressed unfavorable opinions about the presidential governance system.
Metropoll accurately predicted the results of June 23 mayoral election in İstanbul that ended in a significant opposition victory against the AKP.