As Turkey prepares for both presidential and parliamentary elections next year, a poll by polling company MAK shows that the joint candidate of the opposition bloc will win the presidential elections if they can get Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) support.
The MAK’s chairman Mehmet Ali Kulat spoke to the television channel TELE1, answering questions about the elections.
“When we look at the data we have, the People’s Alliance [alliance led by the ruling coalition] shows itself in the 40 percent band, and the Table of Six [alliance led by the main opposition party] is in the 45 percent band. Of the remaining 15 voter points, about 10% – maybe 1% less, maybe 1% more – go to the HDP, and the remaining three or four points go to minimal parties, which we call ‘other’ parties,” Kulat said.
Kulat predicted that the opposition’s joint candidate will win the elections with a better result if there is no problem at the Table of Six, in accordance with the vote rates and as long as they have the support of the HDP.
Kulat added that the running stands in favour of the opposition with about 56-57% as against 43-44%
Turkey’s election system pits several presidential candidates against one another in a first round, then moves onto a head-to-head second round featuring the two leading candidates if no absolute majority is won in the initial vote.
The HDP is the party with the strongest support from the Kurds, Turkey’s largest ethnic minority, many of whom have suffered under repressive policies implemented by the AKP since 2015.
Nevertheless, with a strong Turkish nationalist presence in the opposition bloc supporting some of the ruling party’s policies with respect to the Kurds, there is no guarantee that Kurdish voters will side with an opposition candidate against Erdoğan.
