Over Half of Turks Ready to Vote for Erdogan at Upcoming Early Election - Poll

ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan leads the presidential race ahead of the upcoming snap election, with over 53 percent of the population expressing readiness to cast their ballots for him, a fresh opinion poll said on Monday.

According to the ORC poll, 53.4 percent of the Turks are ready to support Erdogan in his presidential bid. Muharrem Ince, the leader of the opposition Republican People's Party, secured support of 23.8 percent of the respondents. Meral Aksener from the Iyi Party and Selahattin Demirtas from the People’s Democratic Party received 11.5 percent and 8.7 percent respectively.

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The poll also revealed that 52.8 percent of the respondents were ready to vote for the alliance of the ruling Justice and Development Party and the Nationalist Movement Party at the general elections, while 35.6 percent favored the opposition Nation Alliance, consisting of the Republican People’s Party, the Iyi Party and the Felicity Party. Pro-minority Peoples' Democratic Party received 10.7 percent of the respondents’ votes.

The poll was conducted on May 28 – June 1 in 37 provinces of Turkey. A total of 3,410 respondents participated in the survey.

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Turkey will hold its early presidential and general elections on June 24 to ensure a rapid transition to a presidential republic. The country has been in a prolonged state of emergency and taking measures to bolster presidential powers following a failed coup attempt in July 2016.