Turkey's right-wing bloc loses 10 percent of its total votes

A fight on "who is responsible for this bill of 10 percent loss" has already started
Ultra-nationalist MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli (L) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Tuesday, 18 April 2017 05:21

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), partners during Sunday’s referendum for the executive presidency, lost 10 percent of their votes. Although both parties’ rulers have announced "victory", 10 percent loss is now discussed among their grassroots. Even though AKP points to MHP side for the loss, they do not seem to take it personally.

Sunday’s referendum similar in terms of the results to the one in 1987, when political bans were removed, and with a record number of objections, has left a tension of 10 percent between AKP and MHP, partners of the "yes" campaign.

Both parties’ loss of 10 percent in total compared to the elections on November 1, a fight on "who is responsible for this bill of 10 percent loss" has already started, daily Cumhuriyet reported. Sunday’s referendum aroused curiosity regarding the potential performance of the "yes" front compared to the latest election then, when they had 61.5 of the voters in total on their side. This was mostly because that the majority of the voters of MHP voted for ‘"no" in opposition to the "yes"-wing rulers of the party. The partners of the "yes" campaign had set off for the referendum with a majority of around 61.40 percent (49.49 percent from AKP, and 11.90 percent from MHP voters).

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LOSS?

Having been expelled from MHP, Meral Akşener (intraparty opposition leader running for ‘No’) had stated: "If the referendum ends with 61.5 percent of 'yes' votes, I will retire from politics." Even though the discussions still continue across the country, "yes" front’s vote rate was 51.5 percent, indicating a 10 percent loss for the two parties in total.

While the AKP side blame MHP for the loss based on the results of the polls following the attempted coup on July 15, MHP side claims that AKP votes have decreased to about 41% during the elections in June 2016 and they got 51.5 percent of the votes "thanks to them" pointing out the masked "no" voters within AKP. MHP bases their claims on the results from Kayseri [11th President Abdullah Gül’s hometown, one of the founders of AKP), and Konya (former PM Ahmet Davutoğlu’s hometown and former AKP leader) where the "yes" votes almost equal to the results of the November 2016 elections.

Turkey is now waiting for the next elections which may happen earlier though it is originally planned for 2019. This loss of 10 percent of votes will be among the major tension points between the partners during the next elections that will be the starting date of the first executive presidency period in Turkey.