AKP, MHP increase their votes, says poll
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
Evaluating the government’s overall performance, 50.4 percent said they believed the government had been successful.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has increased its support by 5 percent while the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has lost nearly 6.5 percent since the June 12 elections, according to a recently released survey.The survey, which was conducted by the polling company Sonar Research Corp. across 26 provinces and 30 villages in Turkey, indicated that the AKP’s voter support had increased from 49.83 percent on June 12 to 54.83 percent in December, while the CHP suffered a serious setback, as its voter support fell from 25.98 percent at the June polls to 19.52 percent in December.
The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), currently the third largest party in Parliament, also managed to boost its support from 13.01 percent on June 12 to 16.13 percent in December, according to the survey.
Evaluating the government’s overall performance, 50.4 percent said they believed the government had been successful. By contrast, 27.6 percent said they did not find the government successful, while another 5.1 percent said they thought it had been partially successful.
Unemployment was cited as a leading issue by 63.6 percent of respondents, while another 60.4 percent said “terror incidents” were a pressing matter. Both figures were down from 69.47 and 70.83 percent in September, respectively.
The survey also reflected a decline in the citizenry’s confidence in Turkey’s economic outlook, as 53.6 percent of the respondents said they expected the economy to worsen during the coming six months, up from 47.5 in September.
Another 18.2 percent said they expected the economy to improve, while 18.1 percent said it would remain the same as today, according to the poll.
Those figures are down from 26.17 percent and 19.1 percent in September, respectively.
Some 3,000 people were polled as part of the survey.
