P.A. Turkey

Turkey’s opposition alliance surpasses governing coalition in polls

Turkey’s ruling coalition the People’s Alliance has been declining at the polls, and for the first time since the alliances were formed in 2018, has lost the lead to the opposition’s Nation Alliance, according to leading pollster KONDA’s September survey.

Two parties in the Nation Alliance, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the centre-right Good Party (İYİP) have together increased their votes by 2.8 points in September, daily BirGün reported, reaching 44.1 percent overall and overtaking the People’s Alliance.

On the People’s Alliance side, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) stands to win 32.7 percent of the vote, a decline of 3.4 percent from July’s 36.1 percent. The other main partner in the alliance, the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) polled at 8.9 percent.

Some 64 percent of participants said they believed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan winning the next elections to be a negative outcome.

The second largest opposition party in the country ,the pro-Kurdish left-wing Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) increased its votes by 0.5 percent from July, reaching 11.7 percent in the September survey. HDP is not part of any alliance, however, it has supported CHP’s candidates in local elections in 2019.

September also saw Turkey’s smaller parties, classified in surveys as “others”, increase their votes by 0.5 percent, up to 2.6 percent. The category includes the Islamist Felicity Party (SP) and the People’s Alliance’s most junior member, the far-right Great Unity Party (BBP), as well as two parties established by Erdoğan’s former allies, former prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s Future Party (GP) and former economy minister Ali Babacan’s Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA).

Ahval