Turkey Ruling Party Support Dips amid Corruption Scandal
Voter support for Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has slipped amid a corruption scandal engulfing close allies to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a poll published Thursday showed.
The survey by the Sonar Institute indicated a two percentage point dip in voting intentions for the AKP if legislative elections were to be held right now, compared to polling a month ago.
But at 42.3 percent support, Erdogan's party still had a formidable lead over the opposition Republican People's Party, which gained nearly two percentage points to 29.8 percent.
The ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party came third with 18.7 percent support.
The conservative, Islamic-leaning AKP has been in power in Turkey since 2002 and handily won 2011 elections by pocketing 49.8 percent of the ballots.
The Sonar poll suggested the continuing corruption scandal -- which has already resulted in the arrests of around 20 business and political allies and a couple of ex-ministers' sons -- was causing damage to the image of the party and to Erdogan, who has been in office for 11 years.
It remained to be seen what effect that would have on municipal elections scheduled for March, and for a presidential election to be held in August which Erdogan is widely expected to contest.
Source: Agence France Presse
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