TURKEY
Turkish Premier Erdogan faces popularity test in local elections
Prime Minister Erdogan faces a key test of support as Turks vote in local elections. Leaked audio recordings have implicated Erdogan’s government in a graft scandal and planning a military intervention in Syria.
Turkish voters are going to the polls in local elections seen as a test of the popularity of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP).
In the run-up to Sunday's elections, Erdogan attacked his opponents as "traitors," blaming them for the leaked audio recordings.
"They are all traitors," Erdogan said at a rally in Istanbul on Saturday. "Let them do what they want. Go to the ballot box tomorrow and teach them a lesson … Let's give them an Ottoman slap."
According to the pollster Konda, Erdogan's Justice and Development Party stood at 46 percent support in the run-up to Sunday's vote despite the recent scandals.
The opposition Republican People's Party polled at 27 percent, while the Nationalist Movement Party and the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party garnered a combined 22 percent.
Some 50 million Turks are eligible to vote in Sunday's local elections.
Crackdown on opposition
Erdogan has purged 7,000 people from the police and judiciary in response to anti-graft raids that targeted businessmen close to the prime minister last December. Last month, an audio recording was leaked in which Erdogan apparently tells his son Bilal to hide large sums of money.
Although the authenticity of the recording has not been confirmed, the prime minister blocked access to Twitter after the tapped conversation went viral. A Turkish court overturned the Twitter ban, but the site still remains blocked.
Another recording, leaked on YouTube, revealed Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and top military officials discussing a possible military intervention in Syria. The Turkish government has blocked YouTube in response to the leak.
Erdogan blames Islamist cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exiled in the US, and his Hizmet network of orchestrating the leaks. Hizmet denies any involvement.
slk/tj (AFP, Reuters)
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