In the first round, the opposition could hardly benefit from the government’s mistakes.
Istanbul. After the February 6 earthquake, which killed 50,000 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings, an estimated four million people left the region and sought safety in other parts of the country. Only about 130,000 of them registered in their new place of residence; the other earthquake victims who have moved have to travel to the disaster area to vote. Before the elections two weeks ago, some observers feared that only a select few in the region would go to polling stations, housed in shipping containers.
But things turned out differently. Despite the difficulties, the turnout of the nine million registered voters in the earthquake provinces was between 80 and 86 percent – slightly below the Turkish average. Although government relief after the disaster was slow and poorly organized at first, there was no political earthquake against the government. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the ruling AKP party defended its supremacy.