Turkey election: A guide to Erdogan’s biggest test at the polls | Canada News Media
Connect with us

Politics

Turkey election: A guide to Erdogan’s biggest test at the polls

Published

 on

Will the May 14 elections end President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 20-year stranglehold on Turkey?

Millions will head to the polls next week to vote in Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections, which observers expect will provide the toughest test of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 20-year period as the country’s leader.

The country’s struggling economy has dealt a blow to Erdogan, while his rivals, capitalising on the panic, have promised to improve conditions. But Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) still have strong support among large swaths of nationalists, and religious conservatives, particularly in Turkey’s Anatolian heartland, who see an opposition victory as a return to an era where they felt downtrodden.

Here’s a rundown of everything you need to know:

When is Turkey’s election?

  • Presidential and parliamentary elections are held on the same day every five years. This year, the elections had initially been scheduled for June 18 but were brought forward to May 14.

How does Turkey’s electoral system work?

  • In July 2018, Turkey transitioned from a parliamentary system to a presidential one. In the new system, voters elect the president directly and the role of prime minister has been abolished.
  • A candidate needs more than half of the presidential vote to win. However, if no one reaches the 50 percent mark, the top two candidates will go head to head in a run-off vote two weeks later.
  • Voters will also elect 600 Grand National Assembly, as the Turkish parliament is known, members through a system of proportional representation, choosing a party list in their district.
(Al Jazeera)

Who are the candidates and what are they promising?

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 69

  • The incumbent is running for the People’s Alliance, a coalition of his AK Party and several right-wing parties.
  • During his 20-year rule, Erdogan was prime minister for 11 years, before becoming president in 2014.
  • Led Turkey’s economic and institutional transformation in the 2000s and early 2010s. This has left Erdogan with a lot of goodwill from supporters, who say their lives have improved. He is also viewed as strengthening Turkey on the international stage, and growing the country’s influence.
  • But the country’s struggling economy over the past 18 months has eroded his popularity.
  • He has been accused of cracking down on opposition groups, although government supporters said the moves were necessary following a 2016 coup attempt and the threat from “terrorist” groups.
  • Promises: Continuation of the presidential system, lower interest rates, and a strong, independent Turkey with influence across the wider region.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 74

  • Erdogan’s main challenger and the candidate for the six opposition parties of the Nation Alliance.
  • Defines himself as a “democrat” and is known for anti-corruption rhetoric, but is accused by detractors of being too close to the West.
  • Kilicdaroglu has led the centre-left Republican People’s Party (CHP) for more than a decade of election defeats.
  • Critics say those election defeats show that he is not strong enough to defeat Erdogan and lead Turkey. A leading member of his own alliance, the head of the nationalist Iyi Party Meral Aksener, initially rejected Kilicdaroglu’s candidacy in March, before reversing her position.
  • Before politics, he was a finance ministry specialist and then chaired Turkey’s Social Insurance Institution for most of the 1990s.
  • Promises: return to a “strong parliamentary system”, solving the Kurdish issue, sending Syrian refugees back home, and moving closer to the European Union and the United States.

Muharrem Ince, 58

  • The Homeland Party candidate – the only contender without an alliance backing him – brands his movement as the “third way”.
  • Former CHP deputy and party candidate for the 2018 election, where he came second. He later split from the party, which he is critical of.
  • Ince says Turkish social democrats and secular nationalists should unite against “Islamist” political parties.
  • His confrontational manner has led to scraps with journalists, and Kilicdaroglu supporters believe he is taking away support from their candidate and helping Erdogan.
  • Promises: sending refugees back to their home countries and “restoring” secularism in Turkey.

Sinan Ogan, 55

  • Candidate of the nationalist Ancestral Alliance (ATA) of three parties.
  • Ogan has an academic and international finance development background.
  • Former member of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), an ally of the Erdogan-led AK Party.
  • As an MHP candidate, he was elected as the deputy for Igdır, a city in eastern Turkey, in 2011 and expelled from the party in 2015 for internal opposition.
  • He has been accused of having xenophobic and far-right policies, particularly when it comes to Syrian refugees.
  • Promises: sending refugees back to their home countries and supporting the unity of Turkic states.
(Al Jazeera)

What are the key election issues?

Economy

  • Interest rate cuts sparked a currency crisis in late 2021, sending inflation to a 24-year peak of 85.51 percent last year.
  • But Erdogan’s supporters say he has revolutionised Turkey’s economy, built infrastructure, and developed regions traditionally ignored by the central Turkish government.

Earthquakes

  • Two massive earthquakes that hit southeast Turkey on February 6 left more than 50,000 people dead and widespread destruction – reconstruction is expected to cost billions of dollars.
  • An estimated 14 million people – 16 percent of the population – were affected by the earthquakes.

Brain drain

  • An increasing number of the country’s educated and highly skilled people are leaving the country for political and economic concerns.
  • According to the Turkish Statistical Institution, 286,000 people aged between 20 and 29 left Turkey between 2019 and 2021.

Values and identity

  • Erdogan, as prime minister, lifted the ban on women who wear the hijab working in the public sector in 2013, a move hailed by many as a validation of their place in society and their religious observance.
  • The CHP had previously backed the hijab ban and Erdogan says it may be reinstated – along with all the erasure of identity that represents – if he were to lose, as part of other measures that would threaten the values of the AKP supporter base.

Democracy

  • Erdogan’s detractors accuse him of reversing democratic gains in Turkey, particularly following the 2016 failed coup attempt, which saw thousands arrested.
  • Critics also say that freedom of the press has deteriorated, with 90 percent of all Turkish media outlets under the control of Erdogan’s government and businessmen close to him.

Refugees

  • Anti-refugee sentiment is rising, with rising reports of violence, abuse and crime between Syrian and Turkish communities.
  • According to the government, some 3.7 million of the total 5.5 million foreigners in Turkey are Syrian refugees. The government has been praised internationally for its refugee policy, but opposition candidates have been playing on rising hostility towards refugees.

 

Source link

Politics

‘Disgraceful:’ N.S. Tory leader slams school’s request that military remove uniform

Published

 on

 

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.

Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.

A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”

Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.

“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.

In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”

“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”

Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.

Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.

Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.

“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.

“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.

“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.

“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”

“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Saskatchewan NDP’s Beck holds first caucus meeting after election, outlines plans

Published

 on

 

REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.

Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.

She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.

Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.

Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.

The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Nova Scotia election: Liberals say province’s immigration levels are too high

Published

 on

 

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.

Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.

“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.

“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”

The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.

In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.

“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”

In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.

“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”

Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.

Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.

“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”

In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.

In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.

“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”

Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.

“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”

The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.

“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.

“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

— With files from Keith Doucette in Halifax

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Exit mobile version