Poll shows rising support for Turkish opposition amid protests

By Ece Toksabay

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Support for Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party has held steady despite weeks of anti-government protests but opposition parties have seen their popularity rise, according to a poll released on Monday.

Asked how they would vote if an election were to be held now, 35.3 percent of respondents in the MetroPoll survey said they would choose the Islamist-rooted AK Party, one percentage point below the level in a previous poll in April.

The secularist main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) saw its share of the vote rise to 22.7 percent from 15.3 percent in April.

Other smaller opposition parties also saw support increase as previously undecided voters swung behind them.

The poll canvassed the views of 2,818 people between June 3-12 against the backcloth of Turkey's worst anti-government unrest for decades.

The protests began as a peaceful campaign against government plans to redevelop Istanbul's Gezi Park but spiraled into a show of defiance against the perceived authoritarianism of Erdogan and his AK Party after a fierce police crackdown.

"As the Gezi Park protests emerged, all opposition parties increased their votes and the percentage of undecided votes fell to 7.6 percent (from 20.4 in April)," MetroPoll chairman Ozer Sencar told Reuters.

"Voters are telling the government 'enough already' and have an inclination towards opposition parties although they still think they have deficiencies," he said.

Erdogan, who founded the AK Party in 2001, has overseen a decade of unprecedented prosperity in Turkey and has won an increasing share of the vote in three successive election victories. But critics complain of increasing authoritarianism.

The CHP was founded with the birth of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923 and enjoyed single-party rule until 1946. It considers itself the torchbearer of Muslim Turkey's secular order and paints the AK Party as its religious adversary.

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu told Reuters in an interview at the weekend that Erdogan's handling of the anti-government protests marked a "turning point" for Turkey and showed that the AK Party was out of touch with what he called a new "democratic generation".

Turkey is set to hold local elections next year, the start of a cycle which will include a presidential vote a few months later and parliamentary elections in 2015.

(Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Gareth Jones)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/poll-shows-rising-support-turkish-opposition-amid-protests-164330178.html

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