Polls & Research

Turks Don’t Foresee Islamist Government

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in Turkey feel an Islamist administration will not be installed in their country, according to a poll by Konda published in Milliyet. 52.9 per cent of respondents do not think there is a threat of Islamist governance in Turkey.

Turkish voters renewed the Great National Assembly on Jul. 22. Final results gave the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) 46.6 per cent of the vote and 341 seats in the legislature. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a member of the AKP, has served as prime minister since March 2003.

In Turkey, the president is elected to a single seven-year term by the Great National Assembly. In April, the AKP proposed foreign minister Abdullah Gul, an ex-Islamist, for the presidency. The nomination sparked fierce opposition by Turkey's political and civilian secularists, which eventually led to Gul's withdrawal from the race.

In July, the Constitutional Court agreed to hold a referendum on the direct election of the president. If the plebiscite—which will take place on Oct. 21—is successful, Turkish voters would be allowed to choose their head of state in 2014.

The successor of Turkish head of state Ahmet Necdet Sezer was still chosen by the Great National Assembly. On Aug. 28, Gul was elected by a majority in the third round of the presidential ballot, after failing to secure the support of two-thirds of sitting lawmakers in the previous two attempts. General Yasar Buyukanit—the commander of the Turkish armed forces—did not attend Gul's swearing-in ceremony.

Earlier this month, opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal rejected Gul's candidacy, saying, "A person who has defied the (secular) republic, who has said he finds it to be wrong, is about to move to the top of the state. This is a contradiction."

Polling Data

Do you think there is a threat of Islamic governance in Turkey?