TURKEY-ELECTION/CAMPAIGNING ENDS Turkish election campaigning ban enters into force

Record ID: 135339

  • Title: TURKEY-ELECTION/CAMPAIGNING ENDS Turkish election campaigning ban enters into force
  • Date: 6th June 2015
  • Summary: ANKARA, TURKEY (JUNE 6, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS ELECTION BANNERS BEING COLLECTED BY MUNICIPAL WORKERS
  • Embargoed: 21st June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5M2T6BBDNLIZOVUMZ51JESAWY
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Campaigning ended in Turkey on Saturday (June 6) ahead of the Sunday (June 7) parliamentary election.
    The legal ban on campaigning entered into force at 1800 (1500 GMT). After that time all election posters, banners and leaflets had to be removed from all public places across the country.
    Sunday's parliamentary election could reshape Turkey's political system and determine the future of President Tayyip Erdogan, its most popular - and divisive - modern leader.
    Erdogan is hoping the ruling AK Party he founded will win at least two-thirds of the seats in the assembly, allowing it to change the constitution and create a strong executive presidency.
    Under the current constitution, the Turkish president's role is largely ceremonial, though opposition leaders accuse Erdogan of overstepping the limits of his office and breaching his constitutionally mandated political neutrality.
    Recent opinion polls suggest the AKP is likely to fall well short of a two-thirds majority and could even fail to win the 276 seats required for a simple majority.
    But veteran pollster with Konda Polling Agency, Tarhan Erdem, believes that Erdogan's AKP recent popularity loss is too insignificant to reshape the political balance in the country.
    "Eight per cent decrease for a party that has been in power for 12 years is not something to be afraid of. It again will be the first and the most important party in parliament and the Turkish politics. But they're used to being in the 46%, 47%, 49%, 50% zone so that's why they're so upset," said Tarhan Erdem.
    "Lately violence and breach of law, especially by Erdogan, caused a public reaction. I think that's the reason of the decrease and I think it could have been even lower but my guess is that people didn't think the opposition party was ready to take the lead," he added.
    The election is also crucial for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which is hoping to pass the 10 percent threshold required to enter parliament. Previously, Kurdish opposition candidates ran as independents to skirt the rule.
    If it does so, it will deal a serious blow to the AKP, taking some 50 seats which would otherwise go to the ruling party. Polls put the HDP close to that target.
    Led by the charismatic Selahattin Demirtas, the HDP promotes a progressive platform of equal rights for women, protection of the environment and respect for the LBGT community.
    "Tomorrow we will surpass the threshold with HDP and we will drown Erdogan in that threshold. We didn't react yesterday because tomorrow we will give our response at polls not with violence but it will be a blow (for AK Party). We will demonstrate that with our votes," said HDP supporter Velat Ugur.
    Twenty political parties and 165 independent candidates will compete for 550 seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the country's parliament.
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