Turkey’s AKP may lose majority in June 7 vote

A recent opinion poll has revealed that Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) is losing its parliamentary majority in the June 7 elections, and may have to form a coalition government.

According to the survey conducted by the Ankara-based MetroPoll Strategic and Social Research Center, 41 percent of the respondents said they would vote for the incumbent social conservative political party, while 28 percent of those surveyed said they support the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

The poll further put support for the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) at 14 percent, and the left-wing and pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) at 12 percent, just above the 10 percent threshold needed to enter parliament. Five percent of the respondents had no idea.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s three main opposition parties have all ruled out the possibility of forming a coalition government with AKP after the June 7 polls, in case the ruling party fails to score a landslide victory and form the government on its own. 

Speaking live on private news network CNN Turk on May 27, HDP co-chairman Selahattin Demirtas said his party did not aim to form or support a coalition with the AKP. 

“We do not aim to form a coalition with the AKP or support it from outside. We want to be a strong opposition,” Demirtas said. 

Also on the same day, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said his nationalist party could never come together with a party, he described 'involved in corruption.' 

“How could you form a coalition with a party that has made corruption its slogan? What will I say to those who ask me how I joined together with them? We have fought against corruption for all our lives, so how will we come together with people who are corrupt,” Kilicdaroglu told private broadcaster NTV. 

Leader of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahceli 

Turkey slipped into a political crisis in December 2013, when dozens of government officials and prominent businessmen close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were arrested as part of a graft probe. Erdogan was prime minister at the time. The scandal, which seriously challenged Erdogan’s grip on power, also forced a cabinet reshuffle.

Erdogan strongly condemned the corruption scandal as well as ensuing leaks in the media, saying they were engineered by supporters of his adversary, Fethullah Gulen, to weaken his administration. Gulen has repeatedly denied any involvement in the case.

On May 14, MHP head Devlet Bahceli also ruled out a coalition scenario and said he aimed to secure power as a single party.