The pains of change in AK Party

Everyone is talking about the fact that most mayor candidates will change in regards to the upcoming local elections. But it is still not exactly clear how these changes will be made.

There are the classic arguments: those who served for three terms will change, those who were not successful will change, the ones the voters don’t want will change…

Well, who will replace them and according to what criteria will they be selected?

Capability and compatibility are the main criteria, but will this also be the case in reality?

Nowadays, things are tense in Ankara. Everyone is making great efforts to talk with the vice presidents of the parties at headquarters.

All the candidates think that getting nominated goes through the help of the vice president of the party. This has been the case until now.

The pride, personal characteristics and principles of those candidates who are actually capable and competent are not in accordance with staying at headquarters night and day so that they could speak to their vice president.

I also don’t think that anyone thinks that we should go and find capable and competent people if they don’t come to us, that we should go to them.

There is a demand for change, but I don’t think that this is being heard in the field.

I hear that a group in the Justice and Development (AK) Party that wants change are making efforts to rejuvenate the party, and the mayors. They are making great efforts, especially for there to be youngsters among the new faces. Vice presidents like Erkan Kandemir and Fatih Şahin, who are also young politicians, are said to be the leading figures in this rejuvenation effort. Of course, we don’t have the chance to reach them and ask about this in person during these days. Nowadays, their line is always busy with the candidates who are up for nomination.

The public opinion welcomes the efforts to rejuvenate the mayors and thus the party administration. However, it is possible that the good old politicians may resist this. Hence for about one week, there is a wave that supports continuing with the old names.

I wonder if society demands AK Party to rejuvenate itself. There is no doubt that the young voters want this. However, researches show that this is not the priority for the public.

According to the latest studies (will be publicized soon) the most important problems of the society are as follows:

1. Economy

2. Education

3. Unemployment

4. Security

It is almost definite that the economy and unemployment will have the biggest impact on the local elections. Education and security will play a minor role compared to them.

In that case, what would the voters demand to change?

The complaints about the municipalities regarding corruption, nepotism, unearned gains are directly related to the problems of economy and unemployment. Maybe this is more important than rejuvenating the mayors.

The voters want an administration that is clean, transparent, just and provides equal opportunities for everyone. These people can be either young or old. But the most important criteria is a mayor who is clean, moral and just.

After that comes the demands for high-quality recreation areas, the ability of the mayor to provide an environment for their cities to compete with world cities and someone who has a vision.

AK Party frequently conducts polls to take the pulse of the voters. However, this year there is a wide variety in the polls. Through classical methods such as telephoning, messaging and social media, they try to understand the public opinion in the cities.

However, while in some polls it is being projected that the current mayor will lose, in some others it was predicted that he/she would be successful. Things got complicated after this. That is why the reliability of the polls has been damaged. The polls may not be an important factor for the nominations this year.

Yes, AK party is feeling the pains of change. There are different demands and attitudes in which direction this change should take place. Everything will be clear after the nominations.

In the case of an alliance between AK Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), both parties will feel more comfortable. In this case, the demands for change might not be taken into consideration as much as it is expected.

Do the voters think in this way? I’m not so sure.