AKP’s vote below 30 percent, majority of Turks against Erdoğan’s re-election: poll

Support for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has declined to 29.8 percent, while 55.6 percent of Turkish voters are against the re-election of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, local media reported on Wednesday, citing the results of a survey conducted by the Yöneylem Social Research Center.

According to the poll, which was conducted on 2,700 voters in 27 provinces, 55.6 percent of participants said they would “never” vote for Erdoğan in a possible presidential election in June, while 31.9 said they would “definitely” vote for him and 10.4 percent said they may or may not vote for him.

When asked “If the presidential election were to be held next Sunday, would you vote for Erdoğan or the opposition candidate?” 52.5 percent of participants answered they would support the opposition candidate.

The survey also revealed that Erdoğan would be defeated by each of his two potential rivals — main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and the party’s İstanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu — in a possible presidential election in which one of them is running against the incumbent president.

In the event that Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu qualify for the second round of a presidential election, the CHP leader would receive 43.5 percent of the vote and Erdoğan would get 35.1 percent, according to the poll, which also showed that İmamoğlu would receive 49.4 percent against Erdoğan’s 34.5 percent in a similar scenario.

When respondents were asked the open-ended question “Which party would you vote for in a general election this Sunday?” 29.8 percent said they would vote for the AKP, followed by the main opposition CHP (29.5 percent), the İYİ (Good) Party (13.2 percent), the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) (10.3 percent), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) (6.9 percent), the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) (2.3 percent), the New Welfare Party (YRP) (2.3 percent), the Victory Party (ZP) (1.8 percent), the Felicity Party (SP) (1 percent), the Turkish Workers’ Party (TİP) (0.8 percent), the Future Party (GP) (0.2 percent) and other parties (1.9 percent).

Sixty-two percent of participants answered in the affirmative when they were asked if they would want an early election to be held in November.

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 by critics of establishing one-man rule in the country, engaging in massive corruption and using the state’s resources for the benefit of his family and cronies while the Turkish people are overwhelmed by the increasing cost of living caused by the depreciation of the Turkish lira and a record level of inflation at around 73.5 percent, according to official figures.