The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) will be able to mobilise the majority of its voter base in Turkey’s upcoming elections even if the ongoing lawsuit results in the dissolution of the party, said Yüksel Genç, coordinator of the polling company Centre for Socio-Political Field Research.
According to the company’s field research, three-quarters of the HDP electorate is ready to vote for whichever party HDP decides to back in Turkey’s critical 2023 elections, if it is shut down as a result of the ongoing case in the Turkish Constitutional Court (AYM).
“The tradition HDP belongs to is not foreign to such situations,” says Genç, noting that a scenario where the party is closed “will not be a big problem for HDP, as long as it can maintain that tradition and make its preparations correctly.”
HDP voters will likewise support the presidential candidate to be announced by their own party but would act according to the party’s stance, the candidate’s profile and pledges in the case that there is a joint candidate with the opposition Nation Alliance, according to the research.
AYM accepted an indictment in June 2021 that demanded the closure of the HDP and a political ban for almost 500 HDP members.
As a part of the ongoing closure case, AYM approved the prosecutor’s demand to temporarily block the HDP’s Treasury support accounts in early January and rejected the party’s application to adjourn the closure case until after the elections on 26 January.