Goverment officials feel the public’s wrath

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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As the prime minister and others campaign for their parties ahead of the upcoming elections, locals have not been too shy to voice their grievances to the visiting dignitaries, often to the chagrin of local officials.

While State Minister for Trade Kürşad Tüzmen was addressing local party officials in the southeastern province of Gaziantep, a construction worker entered the room, waving his pliers and shouting, "I am hungry, and I have no job." Security and local officials jumped on the worker and took away his pliers and it was reported that the worker was drunk. The act was just one of the instances in which locals took the opportunity to make sure politicians on the campaign trail know what is going on in the country.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears to be the focus of those who are trying to make a point. While attending a ceremony in the eastern province of Malatya on Tuesday, Erdoğan’s speech was cut short by two women who shouted: "You hit Gaza by supporting Israel. Who will you hit by supporting [U.S. President Barack] Obama?"

According to the Doğan news agency, a lull descended on the hall while security rushed the two out.

The "normal" procedure of detaining protesters until Erdoğan left town was repeated in Aydın on Tuesday after a 13-year-old boy shouted, "God will punish you in the elections," as the prime minister passed by. The boy was one of the three detained for "insulting a state leader" and released three and a half hours later. The boy said later that the prime minister had approached him and grabbed the back of his neck, asking him why he had shouted.

The boy’s family has lodged a complaint with a doctor’s report on a 5-centimeter bruise at the back of the boy’s neck, accusing the prime minister of hurting him.

In some regions, Erdoğan’s presence was not even necessary for locals to show their opposition to his policies. In the Akşehir district of the central Anatolian province of Konya, unidentified culprits ripped apart posters of the prime minister that were hanging in the central square late Wednesday.

The local Justice and Development Party, or AKP, branch leader Mustafa Baloğlu condemned the act, adding that this seemed like a part of an organized campaign against the AKP because his own posters were ripped before. Also, on the day the party initiated their election campaign, the windows of the branch office were broken. Meanwhile, AKP deputy Orhan Erdem was booed in the same province on the same day by a group of 15 people and the deputy leader of the AKP, Abdülkadir Aksu, was booed on the same day during his visit to the Aegean tourist resort of Marmaris.

Labor Minister Faruk Çelik had a more difficult job in the Görükle region of the northwestern province of Bursa. He had to convince Görükle residents that the changes in the municipal borders and the government decision to include Görükle in a wider administrative district were wise decisions. Locals have failed to see it that way.

"Smaller administrative units are a waste of resources. The mayors in such regions never have enough money for services," he said. As he was speaking, an elderly man approached him and said they had been waiting for Görükle to become a district but that they were disappointed when the region was attached to another district.

While ministers and the prime minister are often surrounded by a ring of supporters, local party officials and security, regular party members campaigning for support must confront the dangers on their own.

Members of the female branch of the AKP were first verbally accosted before the car they were traveling in was stoned in the eastern province of Batman.

While some were slightly injured, police soon came to the area and restored order. AKP Batman branch leader Ömer El said it was the seventh time the members of the local women’s branch were attacked since the start of the campaign season.