Gazete Pence (Window Gazette) correspondent Nuray Babacan wrote in her article titled “Three crises in the AKP: Earthquake, retirees and YRP (New Welfare Party)” that delays in promised reconstruction works in earthquake zones created problems for the AKP rank and file.
Babacan also claims that providing new benefits for retirees is being discussed within the government, but the main source of discomfort is the rise of the New Welfare Party as a second attraction point for Islamist voters.
Although the topics that challenge the government in local elections change periodically, the biggest trouble spots at the moment are earthquake zones, retirees’ dissatisfaction with pensions and the damage that YRP will cause to AKP not only in Istanbul but also in the provinces.
After the failure of the negotiations with the NWP, AKP members had another concern. The fact that most of the recently announced YRP candidates are former AKP members creates serious competition problems across municipalities. YRP gathered almost all the unhappy AKP members, especially in the provinces where it was strong. Apart from Southern city of Sanliurfa, the majority of the candidates in provinces such as Sakarya, Konya, Kahramanmaras, Bitlis and Bingöl were former AKP members.
“It is possible to increase these examples”, reports Babacan. While it is claimed that most of these candidates have a low probability of winning, in any case they will cause AKP’s votes to decrease. “If we add to this the discomfort regarding the localities left to MHP as part of the local election alliance deal, it cannot be said that the party organization is very happy…”
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