Following the Turkish company Gezici’s public opinion poll results which showed Prime Minister Ersin Tatar in the lead for the 2020 presidential elections, reactions have been mixed, to say the least.
Turkish Cypriot daily ‘Halkin Sesi’ reports that commenting on the results of opinion polls for the presidential elections, general secretary of the People’s Party (HP) Yenal Senin, said that “perception management” would be of no benefit. “The important thing for us is to take the pulse of the streets”, he noted in statements on a TV programme. He argued that the results of the presidential elections could be “unexpected” and gave as an example the presidential elections held in 2015. He recalled that it had been said that HP’s chairman Kudret Ozersay would take between 4-7% of the votes, but in the end he had received 21.3%
Turkish Cypriot daily ‘Afrika’ was more outspoken against the results of the poll. In an article titled “Dirty operation against Akinci” it said that there have been efforts to manipulate perceptions
The paper reports that the same Turkish company had not announced the result of its previous survey, according to which President Akinci was in the lead. “Gezici started meddling in our elections again”, notes the paper.
Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriot daily ‘Haberci’ reports that Fikri Ataoglu, candidate for the presidency of the Democratic Party (DP) said that the survey was “illegal” and had no value for them. He argued that a crime had been committed and that this was a result of a survey funded by interested parties.
Erdogan Sorakin, general secretary of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) expressed the view that it would not be correct to say anything about the elections from now on, because there were six months until they began. “There is the tripartite meeting to be held [in Berlin] on 25 November before the elections. Many things could change in politics”, he added.
Mehmet Davulcu, general secretary of the Communal Liberation party – New Forces (TKP-UG) accused Gezici of “manipulation” adding that “it is a company which carries our surveys for money in Cyprus. It takes what some circles want to hear, arranges it and presents it”, he argued.
Erhan Arikli, chairman of the Revival party (YDP), said that regardless of what the public opinion polls were saying, the YDP was advancing with steady steps towards its target.
Finally, in statements to BRT, Cemal Ozygit, chairman of the Social Democracy Party (TDP) said that they would evaluate the results of Gezici survey. Noting that all other surveys showed that President Akinci was in the lead, Ozyigit argued that he when he visited villages in North Cyprus, he saw that people were gathering around Akinci especially after his statement on Turkey’s “Peace Spring Operation” and the reactions from Turkey to these statements.
