Turkey\u2019s local elections that turned into a referendum for the Prime Minister are finally over and the clear winner is Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan.\u00a0 For a party that has been in government for over 11 years, winning more than 45 per cent of the vote in a local election is a clear victory. The voters in Turkey made their choice.<\/p>\n
As the regular followers of this blog<\/a> will recall, the result is not altogether a surprise for me.\u00a0 My first- hand observations during the election campaign and several comments I posted before the vote had repeatedly underlined the fact that the issues preoccupying \u00a0some of us would not be \u00a0the main concerns of the masses at the ballot box.<\/p>\n Corruption allegations, government bans on Twitter, \u00a0YouTube and the relentless pressure on the judiciary, the parliament and the media did not influence the outcome of the election.<\/p>\n The main opposition has also failed to distinguish itself from the movement of Fethullah Gulen. They allowed the Gulenists\u2019 carefully timed and selected leaks to dominate their campaign. As I wrote<\/a> about the dangers of \u201cwaiting for deliverance with further scandalous evidence against a corrupt government\u201d, the opposition chose to be dragged by the rip current.\u00a0 On crucial issues such as the Kurdish problem and the economy, they remained mostly silent. To be fair, the leader of the opposition, Kemal K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu was clear about the dangers of the government policy towards Syria. \u00a0People in some border areas responded by voting the opposition party candidates in, but like the corruption issue, this did not have much impact on the rest of the country.<\/p>\n No doubt the opposition will carefully re-evaluate their election campaign strategies in coming days but before they set out to do that, Turkey\u2019s relevant institutions will first have to examine the complaints over voting irregularities and the widespread power cuts during the vote counting.\u00a0 These allegations are serious enough to overshadow Turkey\u2019s last remaining claim to being a democracy, holding free and fair elections.<\/p>\n Whilst it is clear that the Justice and Development Party received enough votes to declare an electoral victory, the result cannot be seen as a vindication for the government.<\/p>\n