Ruling AKP issues surveys on April 16 referendum results, ‘justice march’ support

Nuray Babacan – ANKARA

AFP photo

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had research companies issue two public opinion surveys, one analyzing the April 16 results from the constitutional referendum and the other, the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) “justice march.”

According to the survey results, only 35 percent of youth voted “yes” in the April 16 referendum, which the AKP management found to be quite low.

Overall, 10-12 percent of AKP voters cast their ballots as “no” in the Marmara, Aegean and Mediterranean provinces. This number fell to four percent in the Black Sea and Central Anatolian regions and to six for the other regions.

Meanwhile, in a second survey, the AKP management assessed the support given by the people to the CHP’s 25-day long “justice march” initiated by the party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu after CHP lawmaker Enis Berberoğlu was sentenced to 25 years in prison on June 14 on charges of providing daily Cumhuriyet with video footage purporting to show National Intelligence Agency (MİT) trucks heading to Syria loaded with weapons.

This survey revealed that 35 percent of those who participated in the survey “supported” the march, whereas this figure was 40 percent among those who objected to it and 25 percent among those who said they did not have an opinion.

The AKP also made a comparison between the “justice march” and the Gezi demonstrations of 2013. The survey participants did not find a connection between the two, according to the results. Any intervention in the “justice march” would have affected the public opinion in a negative way, the survey results said.

Another question of the survey was, “Do you trust the justice system?” to which 50 percent responded “yes” and the other half “no.” Ideology and party favored were the two factors that affected the answer of the question the most.