One of four Turkish voters regret their choices in May elections

One of the questions in the Turkey’s Pulse, the periodical survey conducted by MetroPoll research company, is worth mentioning as it reveals an interesting insight to Türkiye’s political outlook. For the July survey, the participants were asked if they “regreted who they have voted,” and according to the results, 22,8 percents of the respondents regretted their vote even though it has been only two months since the May elections.

Moreover, there was not much difference between the ruling and opposition parties; voters of the victorious parties that formed the People’s Alliance and those who voted for President Tayyip Erdoğan expressed regret at the same rates as those of the opposition’s National Alliance parties that suffered electoral defeat.

The most regretful party voters were not the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) voters, as the party was the targets of the heaviest criticism after the election. In a survey conducted by MetroPoll in June, just after the election, half of the opposition voters, 50.4 percent, blamed CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for the election defeat and 60.7 percent wanted him to resign.

The voters who regret

However, the survey showed that the voters who regretted their vote the most were the ultra-nationalist Zafer Party voters with 37.1 percent.

According to MetroPoll results, CHP voters showed the least regret with 18.9 percent. The rate of regretful voters in the IYI Party, the other main component of the Nation Alliance, was 24.8 percent, meaning that one out of every four IYI Party voters regretted their vote. It is open to interpretation that the Kılıçdaroğlu factor played a role in this.

On the opposition front, one out of every four voters of the Green Left Party regrets their vote; 36.8 percent. The rate of regret in the TİP is 20.8 percent.

The reason is clear in the AKP

Interestingly, there are also regretful voters in the People’s Alliance that won the elections. The rate for the AKP is 22.5 percent, which is average. The rate is 20.9 percent for the MHP and 21.4 percent for the Welfare Party.

The reason for the voter dissatisfaction on the ruling side is more or less clear; the cost of living and the hikes that have increased since the elections.

MetroPoll also asked what Türkiye’s foreign policy priorities should be. 46.9 percent said the European Union and the United States, while 35.5 percent said Russia-China.