Public support for Turkey's anti-inflationary policies dived to 11.7 percent, according to a public opinion poll which shows growing suport for opposition parties. The report cites the so-called dismissals decree and earthquake-fund spending as causes of the government's waning popularity.
The August poll, conducted by the Ankara Social Studies Center (ANAR), showed that 80.9 percent of Turks no longer believe that the government can pull down annual inflation to the 25 percent rate pledged at the package launching.
Turks, however, appeared undecided over the desirability of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's program. While 46.1 percent of the 1,460 interviewees countrywide said they wanted it continued, an almost equal
40.3 percent were for shelving it. Moreover, if elections were held today, only three parties would reach
the national 10 percent threshold to send deputies to Parliament, none of these being Ecevit's Democratic Left Party (DSP), according to ANAR's poll. At 8.9 percent of the envisaged vote, the DSP fell below the threshold for the first time since the April 1999 election.
Leading the three was the Islamist main opposition Virtue Party (FP), despite a closure case pending against it at the Constitutional Court, with 14 percent of the popular support, followed by the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) with 11.6 percent, and the liberal Motherland Party (ANAP) with 9.8 percent. The results of the poll indicated that the controversy over the so-called dismissals decree between President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Ecevit played a role in the DSP's waning support.
The government allegedly wanted to use the decree in its campaign against radical Islam. According to claims, had the president approved the decree, some 400 to 500 civil servants supposedly linked to either Islamic fundamentalist or separatist organizations would have been expelled from their duties. An overwhelming 67.5 percent of the group interviewed said they disapproved of Ecevit's stance on the decree, while 69.9 percent said they supported the president's rejection of it. Over 61 percent, too, disapproved of Ecevit's move to curb presidential powers.
The poll also showed that most Turks do not believe the government is using the quake-tax-generated funds and donations for the quake region. A total of 83.3 percent were of the opinion that it is not using the
funds appropriately, while only 10.6 percent said they believed it is. –(Albawaba-MEBG)
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
