MetroPOLL published the summary of results of its August polling at the start of September, although the full statistics are only available to subscribers. The results show that a majority of people in the country believe Erdogan will be elected President again.

The percentage of respondents who believe Erdogan will win the next Presidential election is 10 percent higher than the percentage of people who said they would vote for him.

The polling also showed significant public concern about the Turkish economy, with 63 percent of respondents saying that their living standards had worsened in the past year. 75 percent of respondents said that they were concerned about the depreciation of the Turkish lira against the U.S. dollar.

In terms of possible candidates who would stand against Erdogan for President, MetroPOLL said that Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş would win the support of around 43-43.5 percent of those polled when running against President Erdogan. Iyi Party (Good Party) leader Meral Akşener polls at around 38.3 percent.

“These three figures seem able to pull the National Alliance vote potential higher than people such as Muharrem Ince and Abdullah Gul."

The National Alliance is a coalition of parties opposed to Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), and includes the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Good Party and the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).

The consistent ability of the pro-Kurdish HDP to win over 10 percent of the national vote at general elections has seen them return a sizable cohort of MPs to the Grand National Assembly. However, many of its elected officials have been jailed or removed from office by the government. If the HDP is unable to win over 10 percent of the vote in the next election, their seats in parliament will be allocated to the second placed party, which in many HDP-voting areas is the AKP.

The Daily Sabah, a pro-government newspaper, reported on the statistics, calling the HDP a ‘pro-PKK’ party. Affiliation with the PKK has been regularly used as a reason to sentence HDP politicians to long jail terms.

The Kurdish party has always rejected any affiliation with the PKK.

Reporter’s code: 50101