The head of her Good Party expressed her disagreement with the candidacy of the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu Turkey Meral Aksener is signaling a split in the opposition alliance with his move.

In her statements, she said that the opposition alliance no longer reflected the national will.

As she pointed out, the mayors of Istanbul and Ankara, nominated as candidates by her party, were not accepted by the other five parties of the alliance, who agreed on the candidacy of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). ).

For his part, K.Kylychdaroglu downplayed the disagreements that had arisen in the opposition bloc, emphasizing in his statement: “Don’t worry, all the stones will fall into place.”

Polls: Erdogan’s party holds on

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has largely retained electoral support ahead of the May election in the wake of last month’s devastating earthquake, despite widespread criticism in its initial response to the disaster, sociologists said today.

Two polls this week showed the opposition is not gaining new support, partly because it has so far failed to nominate a candidate two months before the election, and partly because it has no real plan to rebuild areas destroyed by the occupiers. earthquake.

“The earthquake did not weaken the government as much as the opposition expected,” Metropoll president Ezer Senjar told Reuters.

His firm’s polling data shows Erdogan’s coalition with the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) is in the lead in the upcoming elections, although it has lost several percentage points of support compared to January.

More than 45,000 people died in Turkey and more than a million were left homeless as a result of the strong earthquake in the south-east of Turkey on February 6, the worst disaster in the modern history of the country.

Erdogan said on Wednesday that the elections would take place on May 14, sticking to his previous election plan, despite questions raised about the possibility of holding them in the earthquake-hit zone.

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, reports prevailed that government search and rescue teams failed to respond to the disaster and were too late. Others criticize the government’s lax enforcement of building safety standards, which they say is causing even newly built homes to collapse.

Promise to restore

Erdogan publicly acknowledged the problems in the first few days but has since defended his government’s response. He immediately promised to rebuild the houses, which would likely help him maintain support among the electorate, said Ali Kulat, president of the MAK election campaign.

“When people experience such a disaster, we see a psychological reaction within a few days and they turn to the government. After 15-20 days, they remain close to everyone who promises to restore their destroyed home or office. This could be an advantage for the government,” Kulat said.

In polls taken after the earthquake, support for Erdogan’s coalition with the nationalist MHP party was around 40-41%, Kulat added, without providing comparison figures.

Another poll conducted by Istanbul Economics Research between February 16 and 20 of a sample of 2,000 participants showed a slight increase of 0.1 percentage points since January for Erdogan’s coalition.

In this survey, 34% of respondents also said building contractors were most responsible for earthquake damage, while 28% put the blame on the government.

Senjar noted that the vast majority of AKP voters blame contractors for the disaster, one of the reasons the ruling party’s loss of support has been limited.

Rampant inflation and rising poverty dented Erdogan’s popularity last year, but he has since managed to regain some support by announcing a minimum wage hike and early retirement measures.

“After the first confusion, we saw that the government came out with more unifying language,” said Nezih Onur Kuru, researcher at the TEAM research group. “The government has successfully created the idea that this is what helps heal wounds,” he said.

This seems to have helped Erdogan’s poll results. His coalition with the nationalist MHP maintained support at 44 percent after the quake, according to a Feb. 19-20 TEAM poll of 1,930 respondents.

^{According to REUTERS}