A survey conducted by the Ankara-based MetroPoll shows that more people believe Turkey’s main opposition leader and presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu can win the election on May 14 than the number of people who believed that in December 2022, according to the pollster.
Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the joint presidential candidate of an opposition bloc of six parties known as the Nation Alliance, is one of two main contenders in Turkey’s upcoming presidential election, with the other being the country’s current president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The results of the survey titled “Turkey’s Pulse” for March were shared by the political observer, pollster and owner of MetroPoll Özer Sencar on his Twitter account on Sunday.
Those who think that Kılıçdaroğlu will not win in the CB election are 7 points more than those who think he will. This is the voter's perception of the election. In December 2022, this difference was 29 points. In 3 months, the gap has closed to a great extent. pic.twitter.com/0DTxnVt8ue
— Ozer Sencar (@ozersencar1) April 2, 2023
According to the poll 49.7 percent of participants believe Kılıçdaroğlu is unable to win the upcoming presidential election, while 42.9 percent think he can. The remaining 7.3 percent were undecided.
Sencar pointed out that the gap between those who think Kılıçdaroğlu cannot win the upcoming presidential election and those who think that he can has closed to a great extent, decreasing from 29 points to nearly 7 points in the past three months.
Erdoğan is facing the toughest election in his 20-year rule, with an increasing number of opinion surveys showing him falling behind Kılıçdaroğlu.
He is held responsible for the country’s worst economic crisis of his time in power and a poor response to twin earthquakes that killed tens of thousands and left millions homeless in the country’s south in early February.