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Winners and losers (I)
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Elections are over, now its time to do some accounting. I want to look at who won what and who lost what. At the bottom of it, we are talking about "a message given by the people." Whereas, I don’t believe that people intended to send a message as put forth by the media. People above all want two things:
* Work and food to feed themselves...
* To live in peace, away from conflict...
Apart from that, especially this time attention has been paid to sharp ideological lines while voting. For example, those who in general adopted a secular lifestyle have put aside their concerns of the CHP being good or bad, Deniz Baykal leading the party well or not, and their liberal or democratic standpoint. They gave their votes to the CHP without a second thought. Alike, people of Kurdish origin or those who voted for a party that they consider close in terms of ideology have either reverted to their former parties or went out of their homes for the sake of voting. An 80 percent participation rate indicated this tendency in society.
Now let’s draw up a balance sheet and take a look at surprises in these election, and those who lost while they were thinking they won.
"I won," whereas he lost
Because of his close attention to Uğur Dündar and me, I watched Ankara closely during these elections. Melih Gökçek was very tense. The same tension was present in him during Election Day as it was during the whole campaign. In every speech he said Kanal D and Star TV are still pursuing a smear campaign. He made these allegations in such a brisk way using such an unattractive body language that it turned against him. His decline started with a panel discussion in which he participated with Kılıçdaroğlu. It accelerated with each passing day. As Gökçek became more brisk his loss of votes grew.
The result is obvious.
He won 2004 local elections with a record high of 55 percent. This time it fell back to 38. Gökçek won the elections but when we analyze the numbers we find out whether he won or not. It is difficult to account for such a loss of votes.
And then there is one person who despite losing won in the eyes of the public: Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
Kılıçdaroğlu led an extremely basic campaign. He only stressed one matter and that was the struggle against corruption. The CHP provincial chairman Gürsel Tekin and Kılıçdaroğlu have formed an easy-going team. They took their part on stage with words that are understandable and a posture that is presentable.
They told the daily Posta during a visit, "We will quit politics if we don’t receive 40 percent of the votes." They kept their word. CHP increased its votes to 37.
In one of my previous articles I wrote, "Kılıçdaroğlu won’t win Istanbul but push Topbaş all the way." That’s what happened. Topbaş’s greatest advantage was his successful chairmanship in Istanbul.
In the end Kılıçdaroğlu lost but the CHP and Turkish politics have gained a new person.
Not he himself but AKP made them lose
One election result that stunned everybody, especially the prime minister, was obtained in Antalya.
Menderes Türel was known as a very successful mayor. He made many contributions to Antalya and changed many things in the city. He was also a candidate who collected points for his sympathy and friendly personality. He was expected to win with a great difference but his loss created a shock.
On second thought, Menderes Türel did not lose. More precisely, the reason for his loss was not a lack of performance. He lost because he was with the AKP. As voters in Antalya went back to their former parties away from the AKP, Türel did not receive enough votes.
CHP’s candidate Mustafa Akaydın was an extremely esteemed person. He had no experience in municipality work but when he was rector the AKP did him wrong. When voters got scared by the AKP they preferred the CHP.
In this case it is more correct to ask the question of who lost: the AKP or Antalya?
* To live in peace, away from conflict...
Apart from that, especially this time attention has been paid to sharp ideological lines while voting. For example, those who in general adopted a secular lifestyle have put aside their concerns of the CHP being good or bad, Deniz Baykal leading the party well or not, and their liberal or democratic standpoint. They gave their votes to the CHP without a second thought. Alike, people of Kurdish origin or those who voted for a party that they consider close in terms of ideology have either reverted to their former parties or went out of their homes for the sake of voting. An 80 percent participation rate indicated this tendency in society.
Now let’s draw up a balance sheet and take a look at surprises in these election, and those who lost while they were thinking they won.
"I won," whereas he lost
Because of his close attention to Uğur Dündar and me, I watched Ankara closely during these elections. Melih Gökçek was very tense. The same tension was present in him during Election Day as it was during the whole campaign. In every speech he said Kanal D and Star TV are still pursuing a smear campaign. He made these allegations in such a brisk way using such an unattractive body language that it turned against him. His decline started with a panel discussion in which he participated with Kılıçdaroğlu. It accelerated with each passing day. As Gökçek became more brisk his loss of votes grew.
The result is obvious.
He won 2004 local elections with a record high of 55 percent. This time it fell back to 38. Gökçek won the elections but when we analyze the numbers we find out whether he won or not. It is difficult to account for such a loss of votes.
And then there is one person who despite losing won in the eyes of the public: Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
Kılıçdaroğlu led an extremely basic campaign. He only stressed one matter and that was the struggle against corruption. The CHP provincial chairman Gürsel Tekin and Kılıçdaroğlu have formed an easy-going team. They took their part on stage with words that are understandable and a posture that is presentable.
They told the daily Posta during a visit, "We will quit politics if we don’t receive 40 percent of the votes." They kept their word. CHP increased its votes to 37.
In one of my previous articles I wrote, "Kılıçdaroğlu won’t win Istanbul but push Topbaş all the way." That’s what happened. Topbaş’s greatest advantage was his successful chairmanship in Istanbul.
In the end Kılıçdaroğlu lost but the CHP and Turkish politics have gained a new person.
Not he himself but AKP made them lose
One election result that stunned everybody, especially the prime minister, was obtained in Antalya.
Menderes Türel was known as a very successful mayor. He made many contributions to Antalya and changed many things in the city. He was also a candidate who collected points for his sympathy and friendly personality. He was expected to win with a great difference but his loss created a shock.
On second thought, Menderes Türel did not lose. More precisely, the reason for his loss was not a lack of performance. He lost because he was with the AKP. As voters in Antalya went back to their former parties away from the AKP, Türel did not receive enough votes.
CHP’s candidate Mustafa Akaydın was an extremely esteemed person. He had no experience in municipality work but when he was rector the AKP did him wrong. When voters got scared by the AKP they preferred the CHP.
In this case it is more correct to ask the question of who lost: the AKP or Antalya?
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