Erdogan seeks Turkish voters’ support in fierce power struggle
While victory seems almost inevitable for incumbent Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Sunday's municipal elections the opposition may claim certain major cities
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan looks set to win Sunday’s municipal elections that have become a crisis referendum on his 10-year rule as he tries to ward off graft allegations and stem a stream of damaging security leaks.
Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party blame the leaks on “traitors” embedded in the Turkish state and he has been crisscrossing the nation of 77 million during weeks of hectic campaigning to rally his conservative core voters.
“They are all traitors,” Erdogan said of his opponents at a rally in Istanbul, Turkey’s commercial capital, on Saturday. “Let them do what they want. Go to the ballot box tomorrow and teach all of them a lesson ... Let’s give them an Ottoman slap.”
“We expect a ray of hope in the elections.”
Erdogan has purged some 7,000 people from the judiciary and police since anti-graft raids in December targeting businessmen close to him and sons of ministers. He blames this on US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally, who the prime minister says is using supporters in the police to try to topple the government.
AK’s main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), portrays Erdogan as a corrupt dictator ready to hang on to power by any means. Electoral capture of the capital Ankara or Istanbul would allow them to claim some form of victory.
As voting got underway in western Turkey at 8am local time, an hour later than in the east, some voters subscribed to Erdogan’s belief that he is the victim of a plot to unseat him.
“You have to look at why they want to unseat the government now. Turkey is a new state, it is getting stronger and the big countries don’t want that,” said Vahap Selbuk, 20, a student preparing for university entrance exams.