President Erdogan Speaks On Impact Of Disaster On May Elections

Afimag.com –

Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, has cleared the air over the forthcoming elections after he had declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces bad affected by earthquake.

Speaking on the election, the President said the tremor poses a new challenge to him in the election he faces in May that was already set to be the toughest of his two decades in power.

According to him, opinion that the government has not done enough for the victims of the disaster would hurt Erdogan’s prospects in the vote, but analysts say that on the other hand, he could rally national support around the crisis response and strengthen his position.

Africa Investigative Magazine, earlier, reported that Erdogan visited southern Turkey to see first-hand the destruction wrought by a massive earthquake as anger grew among local people over what they said was a slow government response to the rescue and relief effort.

It was learnt that the death toll from Monday’s quake, which struck a swathe of southern Turkey and neighbouring Syria, rose to more than 11,000 people.

The President, however, sent in troops to help upon his arrival at the city of Kahramanmaras to view the damage and see the rescue and relief effort.

Speaking to reporters, with constant ambulance sirens in the background, Erdogan complained that there had been problems with roads and airports but promised that everything would get better by the day.