Toward a pathetic election outcome

Ahmet Davutoğlu became prime minister at the beginning of September. Today is Feb. 16. In other words, Davutoğlu has been the prime minister for roughly five and a half months and he has visited 56 cities during that time. If we count the past weekend, he will have visited 61 cities to deliver speeches in total.

All these activities, trips, speeches, meetings with the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) organization and non-governmental organizations, have only one aim in mind: Winning the election on June 7.

Actually, nobody expects the AK Party to lose the election - including the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The AK Party also knows that it will win the elections and form the government by itself. In other words, including its sharpest opponents and enemies, cannot even imagine the AK Party getting less than 276 seats in parliament and winning the election. The opposition’s hope is that the AK Party does not reach the 331 deputies that will allow it to change the constitution alone.

No matter which way you look at it, this is a pathetic situation for the opposition. The main opposition is aiming to get more than 220 seats, not 276. It is using the risk of not being able to exceed 220 seats as a nightmare scenario, and is asking for “fear votes” from the electorate.

This is the basic reason behind Turkey’s democratic impasse, which is also behind concerns about authoritarianism. Somehow, we do not discuss this basic cause, but instead talk a lot about the outcome of this cause. 

If the main opposition was getting over 30 percent of the vote, if it was nearing 40 percent, we would be living in a different country. We would be discussing other things. But with the main opposition stuck at 25 percent, these are the talking points we have today.

At the same time, this situation has given the government an opportunity to govern without any control or checks. It has been left the entire field to play ball.

Another pathetic situation in the call to ‘resist’

You know how CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu recently called on the man on the street to “resist” about the much debated homeland security package, saying that “resisting is a right”?

What he said is not wrong, of course resisting is a right. As long as there is no violence, “civilian resistance” is a valid and legitimate way to claim one’s rights.

However, in response Prime Minister Davutoğlu said to Kılıçdaroğlu: “Instead of calling on them to resist, why don’t you call on them to vote for you?” This is also a justified and appropriate answer, because the CHP is not a party that should want to come to power with a revolution or a popular uprising. It will only come to power by winning votes in free elections.  As it is a party within the system, instead of calling on people to resist a legal amendment, would it not be more correct to inspire people to vote for you? Unfortunately, it is clear that Kılıçdaroğlu does not have much of an expectation from the people. For this reason, he risks putting himself in a pathetic situation, looking to the street instead of the ballot box.

The point of view of security dominating every field of life is not a situation that the AK Party should easily stomach, having suffered much at the hands of such a view.

I think and I want to hope that he homeland security bill will not pass in parliament as it is,. This is how I interpret the fact that the debate on this package has been postponed for weeks.