Election results unlikely to decrease polarization in Turkey
As Turkey counts the votes in the March 30 municipal elections, political volatility is likely to continue.
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s polarization has reached such levels that, despite hopes that the March 30 elections would soften it, initial results indicate just the opposite is likely.
It was difficult to talk of a definitive early trend because two major news agencies were reporting widely divergent results. The reports of the semi-official Anatolian Agency clashed with the numbers from the Cihan News Agency, which is owned by partisans of the Gulen movement. This only confused Turks excitedly trying to learn what was happening from their TV screens.
While Anatolian gave the impression that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government was winning a thunderous victory, Cihan, which in earlier elections gained a reputation for reliable coverage, was reporting very different figures.
In the past, it was usually possible to detect the general trend of election results by 10 p.m. But not this time. In major cities such as the capital, Ankara, and Istanbul, the contest between the ruling AKP and the major opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) was very tight, and definitive results were not going to be available until Monday morning.
