Posted on 04/20/2018 4:53:47 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
As the shock of early elections announced yesterday begins to recede, a sense of inevitability is seizing Turkey. No matter what, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will emerge victorious, or so groupthink has it. The presidential and parliamentary votes — moved forward to June 24 from their scheduled date of Nov. 3, 2019 — will be held under emergency rule, seemingly allowing Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to retain their iron grip.
With last month’s sale of Turkey’s last notionally independent media empire, the Dogan group, to a pro-government businessman, state control of public messaging is near absolute. Selahattin Demirtas — the charismatic former co-chair of the largest pro-Kurdish bloc who dazzled voters with his witty digs at Erdogan in past campaigns — sits behind bars, along with thousands of other critics. Meral Aksener, a right-wing nationalist contender, will have difficulty attracting the Kurdish votes deemed critical for defeating Erdogan. Abdullah Gul, the former president and AKP co-founder viewed as Erdogan’s sole credible rival, has thus far shown no interest in running.
Furthermore, a new law passed by the AKP-dominated parliament allowing civil servants to monitor polling, for unstamped votes to be counted as valid and for ballot boxes to be moved around all suggest that Erdogan is bent on winning by any means. Can he? With the odds stacked so heavily in Erdogan’s favor, the answer is probably yes, but it won’t be a shoo-in.
Various opinion polls suggest that Erdogan and his Nationalist Action Party (MHP) ally, Devlet Bahceli, will between the two of them garner less than 50% of the votes. To win in the first round of balloting, presidential candidates need to surpass 50%.
Aykan Erdemir...“If Erdogan were so confident about his own power, he would not be holding early elections. This is the first time we see him showing signs of panic.”
(Excerpt) Read more at al-monitor.com ...
Erdogan the Islamist's dictatorship appears firmly in place, but is it really/
“What matters is who counts the votes....”
As inevitable a a Hillary victory...
well they have some common traits.
Totally Ruthless.
Terminally Arrogant.
Keep very Bad Company.
Always Blaming others for their problems.
Hold Voters in Contempt.
etc.>>>
My only question is why would anyone want to go to Turkey in the first place?
Midnight Express sure cured me of any desire to do that.
Yeah, that's what struck me too. If you get to imprison your competition, that's what happens:
Selahattin Demirtas — the charismatic former co-chair of the largest pro-Kurdish bloc who dazzled voters with his witty digs at Erdogan in past campaigns — sits behind bars, along with thousands of other critics.
Of course the Democrats would never abuse the powers of government to ensure their candidate got elected...
Of course!
It is a very dangerous place and will not get better quickly.
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