Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s job approval rating has dropped 10 points over the past year, according to a survey conducted by the Ankara-based MetroPOLL polling company, the T24 news website reported on Tuesday.
According to the survey, titled “The Pulse of Turkey: August 2019,” the percentage of people who approve of the way Erdoğan is doing his job as president and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader has dropped to 44 percent, while that part of the electorate who do not approve of his job performance has risen to 48.5 percent. Erdoğan had a job approval rating of 53.1 percent in August 2018.
While 90.4 percent of AKP supporters approve of Erdoğan’s job performance, the second group of those approving of him are Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) supporters, at 36.3 percent. The MHP and its leader Devlet Bahçeli have been allies of the AKP and Erdoğan for the past several years.
Erdoğan’s approval rating is the lowest among supporters of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
Among the supporters of the İYİ (Good) Party, 9.7 percent approve of the way Erdoğan does his job.
Erdoğan has been harshly criticized for creating one-man rule in the country, destroying the separation of powers and acting as an enemy of free speech.
Particularly after a failed coup in July 2016, Erdoğan and his government used an abortive putsch in 2016 as a pretext for launching a widespread crackdown on non-loyalist citizens and jailing thousands of people from all walks of life on coup or terrorism charges.
