Europe

Home page

Europe

How AKP, CHP and MHP value the results of municipal elections â€“EXCLUSIVE

How AKP, CHP and MHP value the results of municipal elections â€“<font color=red>EXCLUSIVE </font>

01 April 2009 14:12 (UTC +04:00)

We achieved our goals. The ruling party lost 8 percent of its votes or nearly 20 municipalities, on March 29. We increased our votes for 55 % against the municipal election of 2004 and 13 percent against 2007. The Republican People Party (CHP) has also increased its votes, but they have some limits. It became clear that MHP is main alternative for the governmentâ€, Attila Kaya, Deputy Chairman of the National Movement Party (MHP), member of the parliament from Ankara, told APA Turkish bureau. Kaya said results of the March 29 election would have psychological pressure on the government. â€œThis election lifted the psychological barrier that AKP is winner of all elections. The votersâ€™ support to MHP makes us to work seriously for the parliamentary electionâ€.

CHP member of the parliament from Istanbul Cetin Soysal said increase of their votes on March 29 was not enough. â€œThere were some doubtful cases during the election. For example the electricity was cut in some places during the accounting of ballots and there were some violations. I believe that the votes were stolen in this electionâ€. Soysal said AKP, suffered in the March 29 election, couldnâ€™t continue its tyranny further. â€œThe people sent strong message to AKP in this election. I believe it will be so in the oncoming parliamentary election. The ruling parties have more chances in the municipal election, because they use all opportunities of the government. If you remember, the Prime Minister and the Justice Minister threatened the people that the regions and cities elected the opposition candidates will lose the support of central government. Despite that the opposition parties became stronger after the electionâ€, said Soysal and added that CHP will take care about the people living in the slums of the regions where CHP got less votes.

Member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Vahid Erdem considers that the results of the elections showed that the people want the stability to last.
â€œThough the votes reduced, the people want us to continue ruling the country. We have got votes from every part of Turkey. We gained reactionary votes due to the developments before 2007 parliamentary elections. The people do not like interference in democracy. Thatâ€™s why we gained 47 percent of the votes in 2007. Those interferences and reactions have been eliminated. This is one of the reasons why we got fewer votes. Negative impact of the global economic crisis on the peopleâ€™s life and rise of Kurdish nationalism also had influence on our partyâ€™s votes. But we gained more votes than opposition parties,â€ he said.
Erdem said the government should pay more attention to the economy and take necessary measures.
â€œOur foreign policy agenda is rich. NATO summit will be held in a few days. U.S. President Barack Obama will pay an official visit to Turkey. We should soon get rid of of the election atmosphere,â€ he said.