İYİ (Good) Party leader Müsavat Dervişoğlu has called for early elections in Turkey, saying the country is being poorly governed and needs a vote to address deepening political and economic problems, the Sözcü daily reported on Thursday.
Speaking about the current political climate, Dervişoğlu said Turkey was “being mismanaged” and argued that a new election was needed to reduce tensions and polarization.
“Turkey is being governed incorrectly. In fact, it is not being governed at all,” he said. “Therefore, Turkey needs an election. This election environment must be built with common sense. Turkey must be freed from this tension and polarization.”
Turkey has faced a long economic downturn in recent years, marked by high inflation, rising unemployment and a weakening currency, all of which have fueled criticism of the government.
Annual inflation rose to 31.5 percent in February, up from 30.7 percent in January, while the Turkish lira has lost more than 90 percent of its value against the US dollar over the past decade, making it one of the worst-performing emerging market currencies.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has faced criticism over his handling of the economy and an increasingly centralized system of governance, with opponents accusing the government of suppressing dissent and jailing critics on politically motivated charges.
Dervişoğlu also criticized what he described as the politicization of state institutions, saying bodies that form the backbone of the state had become tools of political power.
“State institutions must no longer be used as instruments of politics,” Dervişoğlu said, adding that Turkey could no longer sustain the current system of government.
The İYİ Party leader also criticized the judiciary, alleging that legal processes in Turkey were shaped by political considerations.
“At this stage, it is politics itself that both protects and punishes people. In fact, it is the relationship people establish with the political power,” he said, arguing that laws are applied differently to government supporters and opponents.
“If there is no law to protect people, they are forced to develop their own ways of protecting themselves. The outcomes of legal processes have almost come to be determined by a kind of market,” Dervişoğlu added.
His remarks came amid growing calls from opposition parties for early elections and rising political tensions in the country.
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has recently outlined a strategy aimed at forcing early elections through parliamentary and municipal moves, arguing that the government is avoiding an election despite shifting voter sentiment.
The debate over early elections comes at a time when authorities have intensified legal scrutiny of opposition-run municipalities following the opposition’s strong showing in the March 2024 local elections, when the CHP won control of many major cities.
Since late 2024 opposition mayors and municipal officials have faced a series of investigations that critics say are politically motivated, raising concerns about mounting pressure on opposition figures.
