Ankara [Turkey], May 14: Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan is handing out gifts to voters as he is outpaced by his opponent in the polls ahead of the May 14 general election.
According to The Guardian , Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan has distributed gifts to voters as the country's people prepare to go to the polls in the May 14 general election.
Mr. Erdogan announced that the country's citizens will be able to use natural gas for free. The Turkish leader even raised wages for civil servants by 45% and even claimed that the country had found oil.
Turkish people in Istanbul are also invited to board a giant gray-blooded warship at the port to stroll on deck and enjoy the splendor of the country's high-tech future.
The moves are Erdogan's attempt to woo voters after numerous polls showed the incumbent Turkish president ahead of opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
At a mass rally in Istanbul last weekend, Erdogan broadcast a video of a group of Kurdish fighters expressing support for rival Kilicdaroglu - both sides of which Mr. gorvernment's. However, this video is said to be deepfake.
Turkish voters are faced with two distinctly different choices. President Erdogan, who leads the Justice and Development Party (AKP), has promised a "Turkish century " . Meanwhile, the opposition led by Mr Kilicdaroglu campaigned on the promise that "spring will come again". They are committed to reforming Mr. Erdogan's policies, with the main point being a return to parliamentary democracy.
The general election follows a devastating earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey just three months ago. Plans for the rapid and widespread reconstruction of much of southern Turkey , which was destroyed in the earthquake, is the focus of Mr. Erdogan's election campaign.
"Our aim is to rebuild the earthquake area," Erdoğan told survivors a month after the earthquake, adding that the government will build 319,000 homes in the first year and a total is 650,000 houses.
Infrastructure construction and development has been the backbone of the Erdogan government for the past two decades. Mr. Erdogan has demonstrated the state's presence through new roads, airports and vast new buildings in even the smallest Turkish towns amid accusations of pervasive corruption . spread in the construction industry.
However, for some of the millions of Turks displaced by the earthquake, the government's promises of quick solutions mean little. Nearly a month after Elise Aslan and her family had to leave their home in Hatay province, officials from Turkey's disaster relief agency are still trying to work out payment options for her for government housing. . "This is not going to be done within the next year," Ms Aslan said.
Source: ThanhNien Newspaper