Turkey’s ruling AKP is leading in two recent opinion polls, as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears to be gaining political ground amid regional tensions and the Iran-Israel war.
In a Betimar poll asking how voters would cast their ballots if parliamentary elections were held today, the AKP stood at 34.6%, ahead of the main opposition CHP on 28.6%.
The pro-Kurdish DEM Party followed with 8.8%, while the far-right nationalist MHP, the AKP’s governing ally, was on 7.7%. The nationalist Good Party, also known as the İYİ Party, stood at 5.6%.
The same poll also asked which political figure would be best placed to manage a possible military crisis. Erdoğan led with 48.6%, compared with 17.1% for Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and 16.6% for Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş.
GENAR recorded a similar picture, putting the AKP at 35.3% and the CHP at 30.5%.
GENAR’s head, İlhan Aktaş, said the AKP’s rise was linked to Turkey’s stance on the Iran-Israel war and to what he described as the government’s image of “stability and security”.
According to the GENAR findings, a majority of respondents said they believed Israel and the United States were responsible for the start of the war. The poll also pointed to growing support for the view that Turkey should act as an independent regional power.
However, the economy and the cost of living remain the main concerns for Turkish voters, with more households reportedly cutting back even on basic spending for food and clothing.
Source: CNA
