A fridge, a kettle and a farm. Metaphors abound in Turkey’s troubling presidential election · Global Voices
President of Turkey <PERSON>. Image taken from the Russian presidential press-service. Licensed for re-use.
On Sunday June 24 Turkish voters will go to the polls to elect a new president, with five other candidates challenging incumbent and race favourite <PERSON> for a five-year term.
As the sparks fly in a campaign taking place as the country enters its third year under emergency rule, undercurrents of political humor are floating atop a giant tide of political fear.
Ordinarily electoral campaigns should represent the promises and visions of a given candidate or party. But these are testing times for Turkish democracy, and this election is far from ordinary.
The country has now been under emergency rule for nearly 24 months following the failed coup attempt in July 2016, that the government attributed to the secret organization — dubbed the state within the state — led by President <PERSON>'s arch-rival <PERSON>.
President <PERSON>, who is the candidate for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has been in power since 2002, having served as premier for more than a decade before he was first elected president in 2014.
The two years following the botched coup d'etat attempt in July 2016 have been defined by a crackdown on political opposition, the free press and even social media posts.
The civil service has been purged of perceived opponents, as has the military, the judiciary and academia. Wikipedia, the world's largest crowdsourced online encyclopedia, is currently blocked inside the country.
Against this background, it is perhaps unsurprising <PERSON>’s rivals for the presidency are finding it difficult to make themselves heard by a near 60 million-strong electorate including some 1.5 million new voters who have just turned 18.
<PERSON>, in turn, has denied that the generous coverage his campaign has received from the national broadcaster and other pro-government mass media under the current state of emergency constitutes an advantage.
“Give me one example. 1017
Where and which campaign did the state of emergency block?” he asked this week, speaking in his hometown of Güneysu in Rize along Black Sea region of northern Turkey. He also hinted during the same appearance that the state of emergency may be lifted after the elections.
It is widely accepted that as the main newsmaker, President <PERSON> is determining the discourse surrounding the election.
However, his opponents have been quick to turn his words back on him. In addition to providing comic relief from a heavy political atmosphere, these exchanges offer important insights into what really matters in this election for <PERSON>, his three most significant opponents and the Turkish voters.
Emptying the fridge? Meet <PERSON>'s closest vote rival
The candidate <PERSON> would likely have to go head to head with in the event elections enter a second round is a physics teacher-turned-MP from Yalova, a city 94 kilometres from Istanbul in western Turkey.
Witty and charismatic, <PERSON> stresses his modest beginnings as a shepherd in his speeches, seemingly a deliberate attempt to distance himself from the secular and elitist base of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) that nominated him.
<PERSON> on the campaign trail. Taken from <PERSON>'s official Instagram.
<PERSON> is seen as a potentially unifying leader, but his performance among Kurdish voters, where CHP has historically been weak, remains to be seen.
Although lacking <PERSON>'s national profile, <PERSON>'s electoral tactics have been impressive, notably exposing the incumbent's penchant for gaffes and other unforced errors.
In one prominent example, <PERSON> used the growth in annual fridge purchases in Turkey since AKP came to power as an indicator of economic progress under his party. <PERSON> wasted no time in snapping back, causing the Turkish word for fridge, buzdolabı, to trend on Turkish language Twitter:
#CANLI Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan Sakarya'da konuşuyor https://t.co/iTvGTXqTkH
— CNN Türk (@cnnturk) June 5, 2018
<PERSON> speaking at a rally in Sakarya, an industrial town 154 kilometres from Istanbul: “What was the number of fridges sold (back in 2002)? 1,088,000! How much has it risen to since then? 3,107,000! This means that (people aren't) poor. If there’s a fridge in every household today — hallelujah — welfare must be everywhere.
<PERSON>: “Buzdolabı vardı, içini sen boşalttın”https://t. 1017