While the democratic system is working

It did not become possible when the ruling party tried to turn the process of combating the virus epidemic in its favor from a political point of view. Public opinion polls showed that the ratings of municipalities run by opposition parties had risen.

While measuring the ratings of political leaders, the name of the leader of the İYİ Party (Good Party), Meral Akşener, came to the fore. While Akşener, who proposed setting up a "Turkey desk" to address the problems, was ridiculed by President Erdoğan and Devlet Bahçeli, an unconditional supporter of the government, the community did not refrain to support her.

If we say with popular political terms in Turkey, the parties founded by the new actors of the political arena, Ahmet Davutoğlu and Ali Babacan, have been intensifying the "gnawing" of the government they once represented at the highest level.

We have already written about the main reason for this: Ahmet Davutoğlu, who was forced to resign as prime minister on May 5, 2016, despite the AKP's highest rating (49.1%) in the November 1, 2015, elections, has sharpened his criticism of the government. Ali Babacan, a former deputy prime minister, is stepping up his criticism of the government.

This shows that society wants a tougher, even the toughest opposition to the government within the political rules.

Since Davutoğlu and Babacan are demonstrating an open, concrete position on issues of close interest to the community, the community looks after them as long as they do retreat in front of Mr. Erdoğan’s threats. In other words, it is a far cry from an opposition trying to be designed at the will of the government, as in Baku, and the response of society to those who initiate it in democratic systems is laughter. Therefore, the ruling party has no choice but to let the process flow. The AKP leader and President Erdoğan, who is known as a leader who cares about public opinion polls, also knows that it is impossible to design politics from above, so he has to think twice when he thinks of blocking the political process with laws. Because he knows best that such attempts will lead to the opposite results from the ballot boxes, which are a mirror of political competition. The only way is to conduct the political competition in front of the public without pressure, without threats, and to agree with the results of the ballot box.

According to a recent poll by Turkey's most trusted public opinion poll company, KONDA Research and Consultancy, the AKP's rating has fallen below 30% for the first time since its establishment. This was well seen by Mr. Erdoğan before the KONDA opinion poll. Bahçeli, an unconditional supporter of the government, also saw this. However, Devlet Bahçeli was pleased that a significant part of the AKP's supporters turned to the MHP.

In KONDA's latest opinion poll, when some of those who left the AKP were in favor of Ahmet Davutoğlu's Future Party, while others were in favor of Ali Babacan's Democracy and Progress Party, it was inevitable that Devlet Bahçeli would also have “lice on his fur”.

On the other hand, the latest public opinion poll shows that the İYİ Party, founded by Meral Akşener in December 2018, is already widely accepted in society. Although Akşener received 700 signatures out of 1,200 delegates to hold an emergency congress in the MHP three years ago, Devlet Bahçeli did not hold that congress with the support of the ruling party.

Despite the numerous obstacles of the AKP-MHP coalition, the sympathy towards both the İYİ Party and Meral Akşener should be considered a success of the Turkish political system.

Earlier we wrote: In such circumstances, there could be no question that Turkey's most experienced politician, Tayyip Erdoğan, would not go to the early elections. Following KONDA's latest opinion poll, it is to be hoped that Devlet Bahçeli will think twice about obstructing the political process through pressure, intimidation, and the rule of law. If the parties of Davutoğlu and Babacan are added to the existing political union of the opposition, he will probably not need to think.

You seem to have asked KONDA, the public opinion poll company, right?

KONDA owner, former CHP secretary-general and former MP Tarhan Erdem was the first to announce that the AKP would come to power alone with 34.2% of the vote 1.5 hours after the November 3, 2002, elections. Now the work is on the company's general director Bekir Ağırdır, and KONDA announces that the AKP's rating has dropped below 30%. The beauty of democracy or the tyranny of democracy?

I dedicated this article to Sulhaddin Akbar, who said, "I openly told Adalat Valiyev that there should be no political prisoners in the country," after leaving the office of a man trying to design the opposition.

I have been proud of...