Electoral support for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has dropped to 23.9 percent, signifying a further decline since the 2018 election, according to a survey conducted by MetroPoll.
The results of the survey, titled “Turkey’s Pulse – December 2021,” were shared Thursday by the pollster on social media.
Respondents were asked in the survey “Which political party would you vote for if a general election were to be held this Sunday?”
According to the results, 23.9 percent of respondents said they would vote for Erdoğan’s AKP, evidencing a decline in the ruling party’s support since the 2018 elections. The AKP’s ally, the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), would receive only 3.9 percent. Accordingly, the Public Alliance, comprising these two parties, would receive 27.8 percent of the vote.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and its ally the nationalist İYİ (Good) Party and would garner 20.3 percent and 10.5 percent of the vote, respectively. Thus, the Nation Alliance, comprising these two parties, would secure 30.8 percent of the vote.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Islamist Felicity Party (SP) stood at 8.8 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively, while former AKP member and co-founder Ali Babacan’s Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) and former CHP member and presidential contender Muharrem İnce’s Fatherland Party (MP) received 1.9 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.
When the undecided votes were distributed among the parties, the AKP would receive 32.3 percent, followed by the CHP with 27.4 percent, İYİ with 14.2 percent, the HDP with 11.9 percent, the MHP with 5.3 percent, DEVA with 2.6 percent, the MP with 1.6 percent and the SP with 1.5 percent.
The Public and Nation alliances would secure 37.6 percent and 41.6 percent, respectively, after the distribution of undecided votes.
Metropoll’ün Aralık ayı araştırmasına göre partilerin oy destekleri. Kararsızlar dağıtılmadan ve oransal olarak dağıtılmış hali. pic.twitter.com/aWlreBCeXM
— Ozer Sencar (@ozersencar1) December 29, 2021
In the last general election held in June 2018, the AKP garnered a nationwide vote of 42.6 percent. However, public surveys have increasingly been showing the party’s public support to be slipping.
Erdoğan, whose ruling AKP has been in power as a single party government since 2002, was elected president in 2014 and re-elected 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.