Page 7 - TURKRptJun19

2.0 Politics
2.1 Istanbul revote scheduled for June 23
ANALYSIS: Officials scrub out Erdogan’s Istanbul defeat. Is Turkey now a “plain dictatorship”? Any belief that democracy is still alive and well in Turkey—or maybe just “alive”—has been put on the line by the decision of electoral officials to rerun the Istanbul mayoral election narrowly won by the country’s main opposition party at the end of March.
The Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB), representing Turkey’s top lawyers, said the electoral authority YSK’s ruling had no legal basis.
The Istanbul defeat was a true slap in the face for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which, along with its Islamist-rooted predecessors had held the business and cultural capital for a quarter of a century. Istanbullers, mired in a miserable struggle against a recession widely viewed as brought about by the Erdogan administration botching the economy, essentially made their poll—as did several other Turkish municipalities that took part in the local elections—a referendum on their president, who has been at the helm of Turkey for 17 years.
The triumph of Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Ekrem Imamoglu in the mayoral contest is seen as a personal humiliation for Erdogan, given how intensively he campaigned prior to polling day, addressing half a dozen rallies a day with fiery rhetoric and describing the vote as about the “survival” of Turkey. The loss is especially troubling for the populist strongman president because Turks widely regard grassroots political success as paving the way to victories on the larger stage— indeed, Erdogan himself rose to prominence as mayor of Istanbul in the mid-nineties.
Sheen of invincibility. Before the AKP went down to defeat in Istanbul, Ankara and several other key cities, Erdogan had a sheen of invincibility, for he had never lost a key election and last year was made executive president after constitutional changes—narrowly passed after a suspect, narrow win in a referendum—did away with the post of prime minister and weakened the role of parliament. The Turkish lira (TRY), already battered and bruised from the attempt to pull away from Turkey’s currency crisis which reached its worst point last summer and has been re-emerging of late, plunged on news of the YSK decision to call a fresh election. It touched a seven-month low against the USD, and by near the end of May 6 it was trading in the 6.08s, having started the day at 5,98.
“Political twilight zone” “We’re in a political twilight zone, where the economy has fallen to the side,” Anthony Skinner, Middle East and North Africa director at risk analyst Verisk Maplecroft, told Bloomberg. The vote re-run “prolongs the electoral cycle, exacerbates negative economic conditions and kicks the can of reform—to the extent that it exists—further down the road,” he said. “Erdogan does not accept defeat and goes against the will of the people” Kati Piri, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, said on Twitter following the decision to hold a new poll. “This ends the credibility of democratic transition of power through elections in Turkey.”
Critics have long argued that Erdogan is a dictator in all but name. The CHP announced an emergency meeting after the election board’s ruling in favour of the AKP and its ultra-nationalist allies, the MHP, and described the YSK ruling as resulting from a “plain dictatorship”.
“Illegal to win against the AKP” One CHP lawmaker, Mehmet Bekaroglu, said on Arti TV that the AKP pressured and threatened YSK judges with prison if they voted against a rerun. “It is illegal to win against the AK Party,” CHP
7 TURKEY Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com