Why did the AKP lost 28 municipalities in the elections?
An evaluation committee formed by the ruling Justice and Development Party in Türkiye after the recent municipal elections concluded that 3 main reasons are behind the heavy loss of party candidates in 28 municipalities and districts in several parts of the Turkish Republic after the recent municipal elections.
The committee, which was asked to assess the causes of loss, placed its report in the hands of the party leadership.
The report caused controversy at the level of the ruling party because the committee, which was asked to investigate and study the losses of municipalities, is supervised by people close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which gave the committee’s report in the context credibility with the president and his staff, not with his opponents or even in circles that have expanded criticism of the presidency’s performance recently.
Parliamentary sources in the ruling party AKP, after a geographical study of the districts and municipalities that the party lost electorally, said that the main reason for the loss in classical Islamic blades or in which there is a religious voting force is exclusively trade with Israel and the weakness of the ruling party and the main position in the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
It’s believed that it’s this part of the verification report that made the cessation of exports to Israel and the cessation of trade with Israel a prerequisite for the reunification of the disjointed cells of the ruling party.
Or a step in the program of fixing the mistakes that President Erdogan has made and talked about personally and publicly.
This issue was also openly discussed with advisers close to the presidential palace.
The evaluation report has two additional reasons for the loss of municipal elections in mixed or dual cities and municipalities.
The first reason is economic inflation, rising prices, failure to curb their rise, and the failure of economic policies mainly, which prompted a shift in voting loyalties and an opportunity for opposition parties.
The second reason was the exclusion by senior party leaders close to the presidential palace of tens or hundreds of keys to the ruling party’s social and political work, including the removal of about 16 key party figures who were very close and had a major weight and turned in municipal voting for the New Welfare party headed by Fatih Erbakan.
Even in mixed municipalities, attitude toward Gaza emerged as the third most likely cause of losing the elections.
