Turkish main opposition repeats call for early elections

Duvar English

Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has once again called on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to declare early elections.

“If those running the state for the last 19 years tell the opposition, 'You feed the hungry,' if they are not taking on the responsibility to find a solution to people's problems, then the gentleman [referring to Erdoğan] will get out of his seat and leave that seat to us who will fulfill that duty,” CHP spokesperson Faik Öztrak said on June 14 during a press conference at the party's headquarters.

“It is obvious what needs to be done. Bring ballot boxes in front of the nation as soon as possible...We are ready to take on the job,” Öztrak said.

Turkey's next elections are two years away, but Turkey's opposition parties are pushing the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to call them earlier.

The CHP has been reiterating that the only way to save Turkey from the “whirlwind” it has fallen into is through early elections.

İYİ (Good) Party has been similarly saying that the government does not have sufficient plans to manage the current economic crisis and is likewise pressing for early elections.

Earlier in June, the AKP dismissed the possibility of early elections saying it does not have such an agenda for the moment. 

Recent polls show that support for the AKP hit an all-time low as the public has lost its trust in the government's management of the deteriorating economy.

Pollsters say Erdoğan’s military interventions and assertive foreign policy, which dragged Turkey into political crises with the United States and European Union, cost support in addition to the domestic difficulties.

KONDA Research Company General Manager Bekir Ağırdır last week said that the society is “bothered” with AKP's way of handling problems, as a result of which the party's core voter base has gone down to 22-23 percent.