In response to their claims, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ruled out the possibility as he remarked: “There is no such thing as early elections in the world’s developed countries. Early elections are a sign of underdevelopment. On average, Turkey heads to the polls every 16 months. We will hold the next elections on the date we announced previously.” Given the current circumstances in Turkey when the government launched many significant projects, analysts find early elections an unlikely possibility. Yeni Şafak’s Fehmi Koru says although the number of elections held earlier is more than the number of elections held on time in Turkey, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) calling for early elections is very unlikely because it does not have time to waste on an early election. Considering the fact that the government has launched a democratization initiative to resolve Turkey’s long-standing problems such as the Kurdish problem, the Alevi problem and problems with neighboring countries, he thinks the government may not get a desirable result from an early election without getting results from its initiatives. Another reason why Koru thinks an early election is unlikely in Turkey is because of the AK Party’s numerical majority in Parliament, which makes it impossible for the opposition parties to challenge the party. “In brief, no matter how hard the media try, there is not an item on the agenda in Turkey concerning an early election,” says Koru. In consideration of these facts, he wonders why opposition party leaders claim Turkey will hold the 2011 general elections earlier and explains that the opposition parties’ quest for an early election stems from the fact that the AK Party gets more than 30 percent of the vote in the public surveys that have been recently carried out.
“The opposition parties do not want early elections because they expect the AK Party to lose many votes. They want early elections because they are afraid of the developments that will take place in Turkey before the scheduled elections. The government’s initiatives have not yet yielded results, but they may generate very positive results before 2011 and even may get the support of skeptics. So the AK Party that receives no less than 30 percent of the vote now may get more votes when its initiatives bear fruit, and this may place the opposition parties into a more difficult situation,” explains Koru.
Radikal’s Hasan Celal Güzel also dismisses the possibility of an early election in Turkey as he notes that even if general elections are held earlier, the AK Party would still come to power alone because public surveys show it receives no less than 30 percent of the votes. He admits that the AK Party will be exhausted and will fall from power when the time comes, but this time has not yet come. “If the economic growth rate reaches 7 percent, if the inflation rate goes below 5 percent, if Turkey’s exports exceed $130 billion, if terror ends and if Turkey’s prestige increases in foreign policy in 2011, the government will get better results from the 2011elections,” suggests Güzel.
