90 percent of AKP supporters satisfied with government's earthquake response

Duvar English

Prof. Evren Balta from Özyeğin University and Hatem Ete from Ankara Institute surveyed citizens and published a report titled "Looking at Society-Politics-State Relations in Turkey." 

Some 56 percent of the survey respondents said they found the government's post-earthquake performance inadequate. 

Two major earthquakes struck the Pazarcık and Elbistan districts of southeastern Maraş province on Feb. 6, causing devastation in 11 provinces and killing more than 50,000 people.

Among the dutbry respondents who stated that they voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), 90.3 percent stated that they found the government's performance successful. This rate was 85.5 percent among far-right government coalition partner Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) voters, 8.2 percent among leftist People’s Democratic Party (HDP) voters, 2.2 percent among the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) voters, and 1.7 percent among nationalist opposition Good (İYİ) Party voters.

While 37 percent of the all respondents found the post-earthquake performance of the opposition successful, 50.3 percent found it unsuccessful. Some 12.7 percent said, "I have no opinion."

In response to the question of who was the main responsible for the disaster, 26 percent of the respondents showed the government, while 24.7 percent the construction firms and contractors, 18.5 percent the magnitude of the disaster, 14.4 municipalities, and 10 percent politicians. 

While 47.4 percent stated that their trust in the state and state institutions decreased, 22.3 percent stated their confidence has increased, and 26.3 percent stated nothing had changed.

The report was prepared as a result of the field surveys conducted between March 21-26 with 2,346 participants randomly selected from all provinces.