The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), is likely to secure a clear majority in the upcoming snap elections in November, according to a recent poll.
If Turkey held the early elections today, 42.6 percent of the eligible voters would vote in favor of the AK Party, the poll revealed. Held 25 days ahead of the scheduled election day, the poll showed that the Republican People's Party (CHP) would garner 27.1 percent of the votes.
While 15.2 percent favors the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), 12.1 percent wants to cast their vote for pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the poll revealed. The three-day poll by ANDY-AR Social Research Center conducted between Oct. 3 and Oct. 6 is based on a telephone survey of 1,764 respondents in 29 provinces across Turkey.
Respondents have been selected randomly from different socio-economic and demographic groups based on age, sex, education and neighborhood-district, said Habertürk newspaper.
ANDY-AR Chairman Faruk Acar said the AK Party would secure around 265 to 268 seats in the 550-seat Parliament if people went to the polling stations today, citing the share of votes, released in the survey. “The trend of voters is showing doors are still open to the single-party government. That's what we have understood from the survey results," he said.
According to the research, AK Party has increased its share of vote by over 1.5 percent. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu's party would gain 42.6 percent of the votes if the polls were held today. The secular CHP has made a 2-point net gain after the June elections. So, it could win 27.1 percent of the votes in the snap election, the survey showed.
Based on the responses to the poll, regarding the outcome of the Nov. 1 parliamentary election, the hardliner MHP and pro-Kurdish HDP are expected to lose their share of vote by 1 percentage each.
The official results of the June 7 elections saw the AK party receive 41 percent of votes, while the main opposition CHP scored 25 percent. The MHP won 16.5 percent of the votes and the HDP received 13 percent. The AK Party secured 258 seats in the Parliament, but lost its position as a single-party government. A political party in Turkey needs to win at least 276 seats to be able to come to power alone.
In response to another question asking whether or not they have decided which party they would support, 14.6 percent of the poll respondents were hesitant. The survey said undecided
have the power to re-elect the AK Party for a consecutive fourth term.
When asked which party they feel closest to among the present parties in Parliament, 38.5 percent said “no comment." While 19.7 percent said they feel deeply attached to the AK Party, 17.5 percent said they feel closer to the secular party, 6.2 percent feel close to the MHP, with only 4.1 percent considering themselves close to the Kurdish-nationalist HDP and 8.1 percent responding “no party."
The AK Party was unable to secure the majority in Parliament for the first time in 13 years, despite having three consecutive election victories. The CHP, which is the second most popular party in the polls, has 132 seats, while the MHP and HDP have 80 seats each.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for an early election only a few months after the last parliamentary election on June 7. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu couldn't find a minority coalition partner during his talks with the hardliner MHP and secularist CHP.Erdoğan requested his successor, the AK Party's Ahmet Davutoğlu to form an interim government, which will take the country to the snap elections on Nov. 1.
