Is Turkey ready for the post-Erdogan era?
Even if the Justice and Development Party (AKP) loses significant votes in the municipal elections, Erdogan will remain prime minister.
Elections are the most inclusive “opinion polls,” and they have immediate, real-life effects. With several days to go before the March 30 municipal elections in Turkey, I talked with a number of candidates, volunteers and campaign managers.
Most of the campaign workers belong to the opposition parties, but to my surprise, I observed that they are under the spell of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish leader has been indoctrinating all of us to believe the ballot box is the panacea for everything wrong in the Turkish political system: Corruption, you say? Take us down through the ballot box. Civil liberties, you complain? Remove us from power through the ballot box.
