MHP hits out at polling firms for ‘sidelining’ party

ANKARA

Semih Yalçın

Pollsters are not acting impartially in conducting and releasing surveys ahead of the June 24 snap elections, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Deputy Chair Semih Yalçın has claimed, complaining that the party is being “sidelined.”

“Those who wrongly think that the MHP will not win at the ballot boxes will be ashamed once again. Our party will once again be honored by our people and be represented in parliament with a strong group,” said Yalçın in a written statement on May 31.

“Ideological opinions and earthly expectations are mixing in some recently released surveys … The speculative so-called poll results, which aim at having an impact on the perception of the public, will again upset those raise expectations on them,” he added.

“Those who think that the party or the candidate they support will win [the election] simply as a result of their survey results have always been proved wrong,” Yalçın said.

The MHP has formed the “People’s Alliance” with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for the snap parliamentary and presidential elections, which will take Turkey to an executive presidency system from the current parliamentary one.

Against it stands the “Nation Alliance” of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the İYİ (Good) Party of former MHP official Meral Akşener, and the small conservative Felicity Party (SP).

The remaining parties in the race are the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the Patriotic (Vatan) Party and the Free Cause (Hüda-Par) Party.

All parties in the “Nation Alliance” support their own candidates for the presidential seat while the MHP supports AKP leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan instead of MHP head Devlet Bahçeli.