The rate of the voters of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) who do not approve of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s performance as Turkey’s president nearly doubled in July compared to the previous month, according to the results of a survey posted on Twitter by MetroPOLL on Monday.
The results of MetroPOLL’s monthly “The Pulse of Turkey” survey for July reveal that 48.1 percent of Turks disapprove of Erdoğan’s performance as president, while his approval rating remained at 47.0 percent. Fully 4.9 percent of respondents said they have no idea or gave no answer when asked if they approve of Erdoğan’s performance as president.
The striking part of the survey, however, is that dislike for Erdoğan’s presidential performance has nearly doubled among AKP voters, jumping from 8.9 percent in June to 16.8 percent in July. Likewise, the rate of AKP voters who approve of Erdoğan’s performance declined from 89.0 percent in June to 81.3 percent in July.
Disapproval of Erdoğan also increased among voters of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), from 86.6 percent to 91.7 percent in one month.
Another significant finding was that pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) voters who disapproved of Erdoğan as president declined from 87.6 percent to 63.8 percent in the same period, while HDP voters who gave Erdoğan a nod of approval rose from 12.4 percent to 32.9 percent.
Disapproval of Erdoğan as president also declined among voters of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the AKP’s ally, from 45.7 percent to 23.2 percent, but among supporters of the opposition İYİ (Good) Party, dropped only from 80.8 percent to 77.0 percent as well as among voters of the Felicity Party (SP), from 68.4 percent to 31.6 percent.
According to a graph posted on MetroPOLL’s Twitter account, the approval rate for Erdoğan as president has been continually declining after reaching the second highest peak of 67.6 percent in the wake of an abortive putsch of July 15, 2016.
Erdoğan, whose ruling AKP has been in power as a single party government since 2002, was elected president in 2014 and reelected in 2018. His election in 2018 was under a presidential system as Turkey switched from a parliamentary to a presidential system of governance with a public referendum in 2017. Under the presidential system, Erdoğan is accused of establishing one-man rule, destroying the separation of powers and silencing dissent.
The AKP government launched a massive crackdown on non-loyalist citizens following a failed coup in July 2016 as thousands of people were jailed on trumped-up terrorism or coup charges.