By Saeed Abdulrazek, Asharq Al-Awsat
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has recently witnessed divisions as the opposition said the authorities have an intention to hold early elections.
A total of 15 members resigned from the party in objection to Erdogan’s policies on different matters.
AKP has lost around 16,000 of its members since the local elections in Turkey in March 2019. It also lost 129,808 members between June 2019 and February 2020.
Deputy president of the parliamentary group of the Good Party Lotfi Turkan said early elections are likely.
In a statement on Saturday, he said that the economic and promotion campaigns led by AKP are an introduction to snap polls.
Turkan said while the country awaits tangible solutions for several problems, officials are preoccupied with imposing restrictions on social media networks.
According to him, AKP is endeavoring to divert people’s attention by introducing discussions on valueless matters instead of economic issues.
A survey showed that 77.3 percent of Turks reject holding early elections while 10.1 percent back it. Meanwhile, a total of 12.6 percent is indecisive.
More than half of party voters requested from the Republican People’s Party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party and the Good Party to go for early elections. However, followers of the Democracy and Progress Party – led by Ali Babacan – and Future Party that is headed by former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu rejected this proposal.
