Opinion polling has been commissioned throughout the duration of the 23rd parliamentary term and in the leadup to the 2011 election by various organisations. The sample size, margin of error and confidence interval of each poll varies by organisation and date.
Presidential elections were held in Turkey on 10 August 2014 in order to elect the 12th President. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected outright with an absolute majority of the vote in the first round, making a scheduled run-off for 24 August unnecessary.
General elections were held in Turkey on 7 June 2015 to elect 550 members to the Grand National Assembly. This was the 24th general election in the history of the Turkish Republic, electing the country's 25th Parliament. The result was the first hung parliament since the 1999 general elections. Unsuccessful attempts to form a coalition government resulted in a snap general election being called for November 2015.
Local elections were held in Turkey on 30 March 2014, with some repeated on 1 June 2014. Metropolitan and district mayors as well as their municipal council members in cities, and muhtars and "elderly councils" in rural areas were elected. In light of the controversy around the elections, it was viewed as a referendum on the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. About 50 million people were eligible to vote.
The 18th Republican People's Party Extraordinary Convention took place on 5 and 6 September 2014 in order to elect a leader of the Republican People's Party, a Turkish centre-left political party. Initially, an ordinary convention was due to be held in 2014, two years after the previous one in 2012. However, the party's incumbent leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu accepted calls for an extraordinary convention to be held following the loss of the CHP's presidential candidate Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu in the presidential election held in August. The ordinary convention will thus be held in 2015 instead.
Opinion polls in Turkey are conducted by several companies which vary in terms of political affiliations and sampling techniques. They usually conduct polls in relation to voting intentions of the electorate during elections. Results of such polls tend to vary widely, usually due to political bias and alleged manipulation. In some cases, such as during the 2014 presidential election held on 10 August, they have been criticised for their inaccuracy. The leader of the KONDA polling company issued an apology for their inaccuracy on 15 August 2014. On a notable occasion on 17 March 2014, just before the local elections, a poll conducted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) put the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) in the lead. This poll, like several others conducted before the local elections, did not reflect the outcome of the vote, which again put the verifiability of Turkish opinion polls in doubt.
In the run-up to the Turkish general election of June 2015, many political parties engaged in campaign efforts to increase their vote shares. The main contesting parties were the governing incumbent Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by Ahmet Davutoğlu, the Republican People's Party (CHP) led by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) led by Devlet Bahçeli and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-led by Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ. These four parties are the only parties with a realistic chance of surpassing the 10% parliamentary threshold to gain representation in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey
In the run-up to, during and after the Turkish general election of June 2015, numerous accusations of electoral fraud and violence were made by opposition parties. Electoral fraud in Turkey has usually been most extensive during local elections, where individual votes have significantly larger impact in determining local administrations. Although the 2014 presidential election saw little evidence of electoral misconduct, issues regarding voter records as well as extensive media bias have been controversial issues that have remained largely unaddressed. In both the local and presidential elections in 2014, several voters reported that ballot papers had been sent to addresses that are wrong or do not exist as well as voters that have been dead for a substantial amount of time.
The electoral system of Turkey varies for general, presidential and local elections that take place in Turkey every five years. Turkey has been a multi-party democracy since 1950, with the first democratic election held on 14 May 1950 leading to the end of the single-party rule established in 1923. The current electoral system for electing Members of Parliament to the Grand National Assembly has a 7% election threshold.
The following article documents the issues and developments that have formed the basis of the political campaigns and the news agenda in the run-up to the June 2015 general election and the November 2015 general election.
General elections were held in Turkey on 1 November 2015 to elect 550 members to the Grand National Assembly. They were the 25th general elections in the History of the Republic of Turkey and elected the country's 26th Parliament. The election resulted in the Justice and Development Party (AKP) regaining a parliamentary majority following a 'shock' victory, having lost it five months earlier in the June 2015 general elections.
Meral Danış Beştaş is a Turkish politician from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who has served as a Member of Parliament since 7 June 2015.
In the leadup to the November 2015 general election, various organisations carried out opinion polling to gauge voting intention. Results of such polls are displayed in this article. These polls only include Turkish voters nationwide and do not take into account Turkish expatriates voting abroad.
The Republican People's Party election campaign of June 2015 was the election campaign of the Republican People's Party (CHP), the main opposition political party in Turkey. The campaign, which was mainly centred on the slogan Yaşanacak Bir Türkiye, was for the June 2015 general election. Before the election, the CHP had signed a deal with the American election strategy firm Beneson Strategy Group to assist with the campaign.
The Peoples' Democratic Party election campaign of June 2015 was the official election campaign of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) for the June 2015 general election in Turkey. the campaign was dominated by the party's co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş. It was the first time a pro-Kurdish party contested a general election as a political party rather than as independent candidates since the 2002 general election and the first time such a party won representation in Parliament.
Controversies during the Turkish general election of November 2015 mainly centred on the escalating violence in the south-east and the rise in domestic terrorist attacks linked to both the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). International concerns also grew over an increase in media censorship, with the government being accused of specifically targeting news outlets known to be close to the Gülen Movement such as Kanaltürk and Bugün TV. Safety concerns due to the escalating conflict resulted in the government proposing to merge ballot boxes in affected areas and to transport them to safer locations, though the opposition criticised the move as an attempt to decrease the votes of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which polled strongly in the June 2015 general election.
The Turkish local elections of 2019 were held on Sunday 31 March 2019 throughout the 81 provinces of Turkey. A total of 30 metropolitan and 1,351 district municipal mayors, alongside 1,251 provincial and 20,500 municipal councillors were elected, in addition to numerous local non-partisan positions such as neighbourhood wardens (muhtars) and elderly people's councils.
A constitutional referendum was held in Turkey on 16 April 2017 on whether to approve 18 proposed amendments to the Turkish constitution that were brought forward by the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). As a result of its approval, the office of Prime Minister was abolished and the existing parliamentary system of government was replaced with an executive presidency and a presidential system. The number of seats in Parliament was raised from 550 to 600, while, among a series of other proposals, the president was given more control over appointments to the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK). The referendum was held under a state of emergency that was declared following a failed military coup attempt in July 2016.
The Nation Alliance, abbreviated as NATION, was an electoral and political alliance in Turkey, made up of six opposition parties to contest the 2023 Turkish general election against its main rival, the People's Alliance. Originally established prior to the country's 2018 general election, the alliance had consisted of four opposition parties across the political spectrum, which had found common ground on withstanding Turkey's newly established presidential system. The alliance dissolved in 1 June 2023 following its decisive defeat in the 2023 elections, after Good Party's announcement that they were no longer a part of it.
The June 2019 Istanbul mayoral election was held on 23 June 2019. It was a repeat of the March 2019 mayoral election, which was annulled by the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) on 6 May 2019. The original election had resulted in a narrow 0.2% margin of victory for opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, causing the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) to successfully petition for a by-election.
