In order to understand the winners and losers of the recent local election, it would be rational to evaluate the statistics.
However, some inherent aspects of the person should certainly be taken into account. As an example, if a politician cannot win any elections, the success criteria is not focused winning but rather standing on his feet despite persistent defeats. It is thus better to discuss the post-election statements of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli and the Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in the light of this view.
Shameful behavior
If a political leader is defeated in all elections and prefers to attack the leader of the winning party by calling him a "thief " or "abusive" rather than making self-criticism the day after the elections, it means that the politician is still alive but not productive.
His behavior would also indicate he did not learn any lessons from the failed election campaign during which he only reiterated these descriptions.
On the other hand, while giving his traditional balcony speech, everyone paid attention to the words of AK Party leader and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who won the March 30 local elections along with eight previous elections.
He said, "We will try to understand the underlying reason why we did not receive more votes."
Intra-party disagreements ahead of us
To make assessments on the future of democratic politics, it is reasonable to concentrate on the AK Party and Erdoğan rather than the opposition parties CHP and MHP. Apart from failing to make self-criticism upon defeat, these political leaders persistently close their eyes to chronic defeats and tend to speak with words pushing the limits of democratic courtesy. It appears they will face intraparty discussions and disagreements that probably will question their leadership.
For instance, if the CHP base is conscious enough, it will ask Kılıçdaroğlu, "Why did we drive ourselves to become a branch of the Gülen Movement?" Likewise, the MHP members such as Mansur Yavaş with strong voter support will put the question to Bahçeli, "Why did we lose the seat to the CHP?"
Local Foreigners
As a final remark, the so-called intellectuals and distinguished pseudo-columnists whose views are continuously rejected by voters and who become addicted to despising the public, should set aside democracy hostility. I do not think it is nice to behave like a foreigner in one's home country and publish newspapers with the spirit of the foreign press. Everyone must understand that the deciding center of this country is Ankara, not Pennsylvania.
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