Study reveals decline in Erdogan’s popularity before 2023 elections -Details

In a new sign of the declining popularity of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, against the backdrop of his hostile foreign policy and economic policies that pushed the Turkish economy to the brink, a new study, conducted by the Yöneylem Center for Social Studies, revealed that 55.6% of those surveyed will not vote for Erdogan, and 10.4% did not take a decision to participate in the elections in the first place.

According to the study published by the Turkish newspaper Zaman, only 31.9% of those surveyed said they would vote for Erdogan, who announced his intention to run in the next presidential elections scheduled for June 2023.

The study asked whether they would vote for Erdogan or for the opposition candidate in the event of a presidential election. A total of 52.5% of the respondents voted for the opposition candidate.

As for the candidate who will receive their votes in the second round, 43.5% of those surveyed said: They will vote for Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the head of the Republican People’s Party, while Erdogan won 35.1% of the vote.

A total of 49.4% of the respondents said they would vote for Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu in the event of a second round of presidential elections between him and Erdogan, who received the support of only 34.5% of the participants.

The study, titled “The Turkish Political Scene Report” for the month of June, included about 2700 people in 27 states.

Regarding the parties’ votes in the parliamentary elections, the ruling Justice and Development Party received the support of 29.8% of the voters, while the Republican People’s Party received 29.5%, the Peoples’ Democratic Party 10.3%, the Nationalist Movement Party 6.9%, the Good Party 13.2% of the votes, the Democracy and Progress Party 2.3%, the Welfare Party 2.3%, the Victory Party 1.8%, the Felicity Party 1.2%, and the Future Party the other parties received 1.9% of the votes.

62% of the participants expressed their desire to hold early elections by next November, according to the study.

Commenting on the results of the study, Foundation General Coordinator Drea Komorgo pointed out that the ruling party lost the votes of the loyal voters, saying: “The decline in the votes of the ruling party is a minor one that is difficult to reverse. We are working on whether or not the ruling party will start a new phase, and as the percentage of its votes falls below 30%, the ruling party is starting to lose part of the loyal voters”.