Turkish opposition remains own worst enemy
Despite the claims of nationalist candidate Meral Aksener, the Turkish opposition is distressingly split and neither side has succeeded in drawing votes away from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party.
After an unprecedented show of unity, is Turkey’s opposition reverting to its old ways? The question was raised when Meral Aksener, the presidential candidate for the right-wing Iyi (Good) Party dug her claws into Muharrem Ince, who is running on the ticket of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
In a May 28 interview with the independent online newspaper Duvar, Aksener claimed that “nearly all the polling companies indicate that if Mr. Ince [faces President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan in a second round of balloting, Erdogan will win by a wide margin. But if I do, Erdogan will lose.”
Despite her insistence, Aksener’s assertions are not born out by most pollsters. For now all signs indicate that Erdogan would prevail in a potential second round that would be held on July 8. But that is hardly the point. With only three weeks left before the June 24 snap parliamentary and presidential polls, the greatest thing Erdogan’s opponents could do for him would be to turn on each other, and that is what an increasingly shrill Aksener appears to be doing.
One survey seen by Al-Monitor suggests she would get 11.2% in a first round, little more than half Ince's 20.1%. Aksener also gets a whisker less than Selahattin Demirtas, the former leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the largest pro-Kurdish bloc. He is running an ebullient campaign from prison via witty messages and cheerful pictures posted on social media.
