The earthquake in Turkey comes just months before a critical election.
Now there are already the first voices pointing to a shift.
Munich/Kahramanmaraş – So far, more than 18,000 people have died in the devastating earthquake in Turkey.
The number of deaths continues to rise and could take on even worse proportions.
Finally, there are thousands of collapsed buildings where salvage operations are underway.
The catastrophe is also likely to have political consequences, primarily for the elections on May 14: they could now be postponed.
Earthquake in Turkey: Will Erdogan's election now be postponed?
"It's really too early to talk about the election," an anonymous Turkish official told
Reuters
.
At the same time, however, he emphasized that the earthquake had brought us out of the electoral period that we had actually just entered.
"We will keep an eye on developments, but at the moment there are serious difficulties in holding the elections on May 14," he underlined.
The twin earthquakes, measuring 7.7 and 7.6 respectively on the Richter scale, caused massive destruction in ten cities.
Places like Antakya and Iskenderun in Hatay province or Elbistan in Kahramanmaraş were partially completely destroyed.
With regard to the election, the official referred to the state of emergency that will apply in the 10 cities for three months.
In addition, 15 percent of the Turkish population lives in the affected area, which generates almost ten percent of the gross domestic product.
Logistically, it will actually be difficult to organize an election in these areas.
It is also questionable whether people who lost several family members in the earthquake will go to the polls at all.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: This is the President of Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: This is the President of Turkey
Earthquake could put additional strain on Erdogan in Turkey's elections
According to the official, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-conservative AKP and its nationalist ally MHP want to discuss a postponement.
However, right after the catastrophe it was still too early to make a decision.
This is also reported by Fr.de.
The earthquake will certainly not make Erdogan's election easier.
His approval ratings and popularity have steadily declined in recent years amid economic troubles.
Now his government is accused of a slow reaction to the earthquake and corruption with building contractors.
This in turn means that there are insufficient security controls in most buildings, it is said in public.
(bb)
