The Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has been ruling Turkey as a single-party government since 2002, would have had a nationwide vote below 30 percent if a general election were held in February, according to Bekir Ağırdır, the general manager of Konda, one of Turkey’s leading polling companies.
During a Karar TV program on YouTube, Ağırdır said 36 percent of voters were undecided, while the AKP vote was below 30 percent according to the results of a public survey conducted by Konda in February.
The pollster said new parties, the Gelecek Party and the DEVA Party, established by the former AKP politicians Ahmet Davutoğlu and Ali Babacan, respectively, could attract the undecided voters.
“By the end of this year, it is clear that both parties will be eligible to run in the elections,” Ağırdır said. “I don’t think a statement like, ‘It’s been six months [since their establishment], they still aren’t above 5 percent,’ is true, either.”
According to Ağırdır, the AKP is following a policy of tension and trying to criminalize the opposition parties, not only the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) but also the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the İYİ Party and the Felicity Party (SP).
“Instead of a success story, it always creates tension. It always talks about either a domestic or a foreign enemy,” said Ağırdır.