Surveys show Turkey’s İmamoğlu will win Istanbul election rerun – report

Date:25May2019

The harsh rhetoric of the coalition formed by the AKP and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), labelling the opposition as enemies and terrorists, was one of the factors that affected the voters’ behaviour on March 31, Ağırdır said. As a result, the opposition, including the secularist voters of the CHP and the Islamist voters of the Felicity Party, consolidated their votes to form a bloc against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, he said.

“(…) The moment Tayyip Erdoğan and Devlet Bahçeli (leader of the MHP) began espousing that rhetoric on stage, those on the other side became alarmed, consolidated,” the pollster said.

The economic downturn in the country is another important factor that affected the result of the March elections, according to Ağırdır. Agirdir is the CEO of reputable survey agency KONDA