CHP deputy admits party lacks trust of electorate

Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Fikri Sağlar admitted four days after the elections that despite the election promises by his party to give two additional monthly pensions to the retired, not even a quarter of the retired voted for the party. Sağlar branded the outcome of the elections as a "failure" for the party.

The CHP whose target was to gain 35 percent of the votes in Sunday's elections managed to maintain only the proportion of votes it received in the 2011 elections. This has been billed as a failure even by the party's own base.

"The 132 seats the party received should not be deemed as a success," Sağlar said. He also added: "There is only one kind of success in elections which is to become the first party and lead single-handedly."

The leader of the CHP, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, took center stage thanks to the populist election promises he made during campaigning. Leaning on economic issues, Kılıçdaroğlu aimed to gain votes by addressing economic concerns. The CHP's promises varied from a significant increase in the minimum wage, reducing diesel prices to TL 1.5 ($0.60) as well as a poverty wage program for poor families, a family insurance project that aims to pay a certain amount to families with insufficient income.

But taking into consideration the results of the elections, he appears to have failed to convince the public, which probably called into question the applicability of the promises.

"It is not a success for the CHP. It will evaluate the election outcome once the government is formed. We have made serious promises regarding the 11 million retired, but not even a quarter of them voted for us. If we look into the reasons of that, I guess the unreliability of the party is the cause of it," Sağlar further added.

The CHP's most striking election promises were on the economy, as the party promised to increase the minimum wage from TL 949 ($354) to TL 1,500. The party also aimed to provide a million additional jobs in the near future and reduce unemployment to under 5 percent and inflation to 4 percent.