One of the most credible survey companies in Turkey released figures on Tuesday from a recently conducted voter survey.
A most striking result of the survey, conducted between 14-20 April with the participations of 2164 eligible voters in 26 cities, appears to be the shrinking of the gap between two opposition parties of the ‘Nation’s Alliance’.
According to survey results, 22.4% of the participants said they will vote for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), while 18.6% said they will vote for the right-wing opposition IYI Party.
The support for CHP fell slightly, usually around 25% in earlier surveys and 22.6% in the last general elections, according to MetroPoll’s survey. This is despite attempts by party officials to gain the confidence of ‘conservative’ voters, by siding with the administration in supporting the Turkish administration’s war policies, and in key issues such as rejecting recognition of historical injustices committed against Armenians, other minorities, and the Kurds.
While CHP has failed to make any progress, even in the midst of a severe economic crisis which should have enabled it to corner the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), IYI Party’s support rose significantly, taking it a step closer to its objective of replacing CHP as the main opposition.
AKP received 32.1% of respondents’ support, a relatively high figure considering the impact of devastating food and energy price increases and the unsolved foreign currency crisis.
The pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) received 12.3% of respondents’ support, a slight increase to their 2018 general election figure.
The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) -who reject a democratic resolution of the Kurdish question- has received 7.3% of the respondents’ support, slightly over the new election threshold of 7%.
