Family clans no longer determine election results in East, Southeast

Until the recent past, the leader of a family clan would decide who members of his clan would vote for during elections. Such support from a clan would mean “mass” or “bloc” votes for political parties and their candidates. When a family clan leader decided to support a political party, usually all of its members would vote for the same party, which used to mean hundreds, and even thousands of votes at a time going to the same party. However, this has not been the case this year, according to the results of the June 12 elections. An analysis of the distribution of votes cast in some eastern and southeastern provinces, where family clans are huge in number, suggests that members of the clans did not cast “mass” votes on June 12. Instead, they voted for the political parties they supported. According to Rüstem Erkan, a professor in Dicle University’s sociology department, the latest elections show that family clans are now able to shape the political views of only a limited number of members. “Yet, this does not mean that clans are no longer influential on their members,” he added.

 Analysts believe that the increase in the education levels of clan members and the impact of mass communication devices has led them to diverge from the political views and decisions of their leaders.

 Abdülmuttalip Özbek, who ran in the June elections as a deputy candidate from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Hakkari but failed to get elected, said some clan leaders who entered the elections as independent candidates after the AK Party refused to nominate them did not receive the support required from voters because members of their clans did not vote for them. “Political parties used to believe until the past five years that support from family clans would bring them success in the elections. However, qualifications of political parties and their candidates are now more important to members of family clans than the decisions of their leaders,” he said. Özbek also noted that before casting their votes, voters think about whether a candidate of a political party, even if they belong to a family clan or is the leader of the clan, can solve their problems if he gets elected.

 “It was advantageous for a candidate to belong to a clan in the past. But now it is almost a disadvantage. It is only an advantage for him only if voters believe that his personal qualifications are good enough to be elected to Parliament. If not, a candidate has almost no chance of winning a parliamentary seat regardless of his position in a family clan,” he added.

 Burhan Kayatürk, who won a seat in Parliament as an AK Party deputy from Van, said his party managed to increase its national support both in Van and in many other eastern provinces on June 12 despite the support of family clans for other political parties and pressure put on voters by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) not to vote for the AK Party.

Candidates who lost despite support of family clans

Many independent candidates who were hopeful of getting elected to Parliament thanks to support pledged by family clans were disappointed when the results of the June 12 elections were announced. They lost either to the AK Party or the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). The candidates were mostly willing to be nominated by the AK Party but decided to run as independent candidates after the AK Party turned down their applications. The following are only some of a long list of independent candidates who lost the deputy race despite an earlier pledge by family clans to support them on June 12:

Zülfikar İzol: İzol, who was a Şanlıurfa deputy, resigned from the AK Party after his party decided not to nominate him in the June elections. As a member of the İzol clan in Şanlıurfa, İzol was almost sure that he would win a seat in Parliament thanks to support coming from his clan. However, leading members of the clan announced in early June that they would lend support to the AK Party in the elections. İzol was able to secure only around 14,000 votes from the more than 70,000 İzol clan members and failed to get elected on June 12.

İbrahim Özyavuz: A member of the Cümeyli clan in Şanlıurfa, Özyavuz was one of the many independent candidates who was hoping to enter Parliament. However, he failed to secure required support from voters in the elections.

Mahmut Cevheri: Cevheri is one of the members of the powerful Şıhanlı clan in Şanlıurfa. He was not supported by many of his clan’s members on June 12 and was not able to win a seat in Parliament. Zeynel Fatih Şıhanlıoğlu: Also a member of the Şıhanlı clan, Şıhanlıoğlu was unsuccessful in the June elections.

Ahmet Ersin Bucak: Having been elected to Parliament from different center-right political parties in the past, Bucak, a member of the Bucak clan, was hoping to enter Parliament as an independent candidate on June 12. He secured over 31,000 votes yet failed to become a deputy.

 Salim Ensarioğlu: Former State Minister Salim Ensarioğlu, who has been elected to Parliament three times in past years, thought that the support of his Ensarioğlu clan would carry him to Parliament as a deputy. However, he failed to win the required number of votes to win a seat in Parliament.