A survey about fires in Turkey and performance of government in regards

Turkey suffered intense forest fires for many days and invaluable forests of the country burned like hell, “literally”. Many citizens expressed their opinions on TV channels about how well the government did to extinguish said fires and many made related comments social media as well. AKSOY RESEARCH company, one of the most prominent and reputable firms in the sector made a survey about “How said fires had affected the vote of AK PARTY” which has been in power  for almost two decades.

Aksoy Research found that fires and the way the government had managed the process significantly affected voter preferences. While interviewed citizens thought the government had failed to respond to forest fires, the rate of those citizens who thought that the establishment responsible for putting out fires in the first degree was the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was 83.5 percent.

“IF THERE WERE AN ELECTION TODAY”

According to research results, it was reported that if there were an election on this Sunday, the vote rate of the Cumhur (republic) Alliance would be 38.6 percent, while the Millet (Nation) Alliance’s vote rate would be 42.0 percent. 13.8 per cent of respondents said they were “undecided, unwilling to state  or not considering voting”

Note: Cumhur Alliance consists of AK Party and MHP while Millet Alliance consists of CHP, IYI Party and Saadet Party. On top of above figures experts believe DEVA Party and GELECEK Party are most likely to contribute to Millet Alliance with a rate of 5 percent which would bring the vote rate of the alliance to about 47, without even considering votes from HDP electorate)

“DO YOU FEEL FREE TO CRITICIZE THE GOVERNMENT?”

In said research, 56.7 per cent of respondents said they did not feel free, while only 23.8 per cent thought they could be free to criticize the government in response to the question  ‘how free do you feel when criticizing the government?”

Another important question forwarded was “Do you approve of the way Erdogan carries out the presidency?” 51.8 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Erdogan’s style of performance, while 26.9 percent responded that they approved. 21.3 percent of respondents said they were undecided. For nearly 1 year, this figure related to performance approval had been at 32%, and for the first time since the wildfires, it was observed to have fallen to 26.9%.

58.1% of AKP voters approved of the way the President served, while this figure was found to be 36.3% of MHP voters only.

TWO POSSIBLE REASONS FOR FOUND RESULTS

Participants were asked about the cause of the wildfires. 45.2 percent of respondents stated that it had to with sabotage of concerned terrorist organization’, while 31.2 percent believed that interest groups created them to open up land for construction. In the study, 65.5 percent of AKP voters pointed to the terrorist organization as the cause of forest fires.

GOVERNMENT APPEARS TO HAVE FAILING IN RESPONSE TO FOREST FIRES

In response to the question “How successful do you think the government was in responding to wildfires?” 62.8 per cent of respondents ticked the failed option, while only 27.6 per cent answered as “successfully”. On the other hand, 37.1 percent of those who said they voted for the AKP in the last election thought that the government had failed in forest fires, while 50 percent of MHP voters said that the government had failed in forest fires.

87.5 percent responded that Turkey should have asked the international community for help earlier during forest fires, while 12.5 percent responded that international community should not have been asked for help.

SOURCE: cumhuriyet.com.tr/galeri/yanginlar-akpnin-oylarini-nasil-etkiledi-1860475?_n_pid=1505/9