ANKARA, Turkey — The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) increased its nationwide vote by 7% in the March 30 local elections compared with the ones in 2009. It emerged victorious in 49 of 81 metropolitan municipalities. It won 29 cities with a clear majority, and only fell below 40% of the vote in four of the cities in which it triumphed, showing once again that it has a homogenous presence across the country.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan turned this election into a confidence vote following the Gezi Park protests and the graft probe that brought even his family members under judicial review, and he proved to be unshakable at the ballot box. While the opposition parties appeared to have all the political weapons needed to score against Erdogan, they were the losers.
This was the eighth election since the AKP took power more than a decade ago in which the opposition has failed to score an overall electoral victory. The AKP received 44.18% of the vote while the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) received 28.61%, according to unofficial results. The Supreme Election Board (YSK) is expected to announce the official results by Tuesday, April 1, or Wednesday, April 2, at the latest. Appearing before the cameras on Monday, March 31, seemingly in complete denial, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said, “We are coming to power by gaining strength. We may not have the votes we expected, but we have an upward trend — slowly but surely. We will reach out to more people [for the next election.]” The CHP increased its vote by a little more than 5% compared with the 2009 local elections, but failed to pass the psychological threshold of 30% nationwide.
The opposition parties insist on not getting the people’s message. They don’t offer the public candidates who could make a difference by coming up with concrete plans that promise a better future. They find it easy to criticize those who receive food and social aid from the AKP. The opposition built the theme of this election over the Dec.17 graft probe; this, however, was not enough to overcome the psychological gains the Erdogan camp has made since it took over the Istanbul and Ankara municipalities two decades ago. And people long ago lost their belief in politicians’ ability to provide clean governance; there has been corruption aplenty in Turkey. Moreover, the CHP opted to stay neutral in the fight between the AKP and the US-based Sunni religious leader Fethullah Gulen and his followers, the Gulenists.
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