For his part, Turkish political analyst Yusuf Katabioglu told QNA that the earthquake that hit Turkiye had its humanitarian and economic repercussions, affecting 11 provinces and 13 million of their residents, in addition to a cost of damage bill of USD 104 billion, along with many humanitarian consequences.
He added that it was a great challenge for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to decide not to postpone elections despite the earthquake crisis, a decision which indicated his strength and confidence: not wanting to create a situation that could be seen as a pretext, a decision that resonates positively with the Turkish voter.
Katabioglu stressed that these elections will experience a large voting turnout, with an estimated participation rate exceeding 85 percent. He also expected the opposition to attempt to show grievances in response to the progress the People’s Alliance party is doing according to polls, not ruling out the possibility of crises being created as a result. However, he said that these elections are not Turkiye’s first, with many mechanisms put in place to ensure elections integrity.
For his part, Turkish affairs expert and Research Assistant Professor of international relations, security and defense at the Ibn Khaldon Center Dr. Ali Bakir said to QNA that the Turkish voter will focus heavily on every candidate’s priorities with regard to domestic politics, being something that directly affects voters’ daily lives, disregarding the belief that opposition parties’ agenda coincides with foreign trends, especially Western ones, considering that such matters do not affect the Turkish voter.
He said that there is an undeclared alliance between the Peoples’ Democratic Party and the table of six-parties, explaining that the goal behind not announcing this alliance officially is due to two main reasons; the first is to deprive the Justice and Development Party and its allies the possibility of criticizing the opposition and the second reason being to maintain the cohesion of the alliance, especially given the Good Party’s strong opposition to any alliance with the Peoples’ Democratic Party.
Bakir stressed that the Kurdish bloc is a large one and tends to often vote as a bloc, meaning that Kurdish votes do not get dispersed as those of the nationalists, Islamists and leftists, in addition, he explained that the Kurdish vote often focuses on the Kurdish national element, with the existence of some small Kurdish parties within the larger Kurdish bloc that have conservative or Islamic leanings, who do not usually vote left, yet the opposition and the Peoples’ Democratic Party are working towards making these Kurdish votes go for the table of six candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Source: Qatar News Agency
