Analyzing Turkey's election 'earthquake'

Kursat Akyol

Nov 2, 2015

A man looks at newspapers at a kiosk in Diyarbakir, Turkey November 2, 2015. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday the nation had voted for stability in a parliamentary election that saw the AK Party he founded win almost 50 percent of the vote, and said the world should respect the result. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov - RTX1UCZZ — A man looks at newspapers at a kiosk in Diyarbakir, Turkey, Nov. 2, 2015. — REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov

Turkey’s Nov. 1 election results came not as a surprise, but as an earthquake. The entire list of polling companies performed dismally and failed to forecast the results accurately.

But never mind the pollsters. Even the top brass of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which won the election as the single ruling party for the fourth successive term, were not expecting such a mind-boggling victory.