Turkey's ruling AKP losing the support of pious voters

A new survey has shown that the ruling AKP has lost the support of 10 percent of religious voters within the past year. The HDP and İYİ Party were the only two parties that saw their support level increase among the religious voters, according to Metropoll's survey.

Saturday January 01 2022 12:42 pm

Erdoğan addresses a rally prior to the March 2019 local elections in this file photo.

Duvar English

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been gradually losing its support among voters who describe themselves as “religious.”

According to a survey conducted by the pollster Metropoll, 39.8 percent of religious voters would vote for the AKP today, if there were an election this Sunday. In the January-March 2021 on the other hand, the support level of the AKP among religious voters stood at 49.9 percent, with this number observing a decrease over the months.

The survey results were shared by Metropoll head Özer Sencar on Twitter.

Metropoll’ün 2021 yılında gerçekleştirdiği 12 “Türkiye’nin Nabzı” araştırmasında kendilerini “Dindar” olarak tanımlayan tüm seçmenlerin “Bu pazar seçim olsa hangi partiye oy verirsiniz” sorusuna verdikleri cevapların üçer aylık dönemlerdeki oranları. pic.twitter.com/3V5qBo1585
— Ozer Sencar (@ozersencar1) December 31, 2021

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)'s support level also decreased among the religious voters, as 3.1 percent of them said they would vote for the party today, whereas this number was 5.7 percent at the beginning of 2021.

Some 8.4 percent of religious voters expressed support for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) in the period of January-March 2021. This number increased to 9.4 percent in the July-September period, but decreased to 7.5 percent in the October-December period.

The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the İYİ (Good) Party were the only two parties that saw their support level increase among the religious voters. The HDP increased its support level from 9.1 percent to 10.3 among the religious voters within the past year, whereas the İYİ Party marked an increase of from 3.6 percent to 4.5 percent.

The survey comes as Turkish citizens are struggling to adapt and survive in the face of the lira's crash and soaring inflation.

The AKP has been ignoring the calls that its idiosyncratic approach to running Turkey’s economy is not working. The currency has crashed in value, inflation has reached soaring figures and young people's expectations and dreams continue to be shadowed by the rising unemployment rate.

A decade ago it cost around 1.8 liras to buy a single dollar, whereas today that figure is above 13.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been ruling out early elections, saying that the AKP-MHP coalition will win the parliament majority and the presidential race in the June 2023 elections.