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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ISTANBUL 000180 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV TU SOPN
SUBJECT: SURPRISE TURKISH ELECTION RESULTS PUT SKEPTICAL 
EYE ON POLLING FIRMS 
 
REF: 05 ANKARA 4888 
 
ISTANBUL 00000180  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
Consulate Istanbul and Embassy Ankara jointly authored this 
cable. 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: The relatively low support for the ruling 
Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the March 29 local 
election caught many political watchers off-guard, which 
calls into question the validity of public opinion surveys in 
Turkey. Only one published poll * from A&G Research -- 
correctly calculated support for the ruling Justice and 
Development Party (AKP) below 40 percent for municipal 
assemblies nationwide.  While many Turkish firms fail to 
employ best practices employed by established U.S. companies, 
some Turkish firms are raising the bar. End Summary. 
 
---------------------------------------- 
Most Polls Were Wrong on Support for AKP 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Most published polls overestimated public support for 
the AKP in the lead-up to the March 29 local elections. 
Polling companies generally forecasted support for the ruling 
AKP significantly above -- outside the range of the survey,s 
sampling error -- the actual support of 38.9 percent for 
municipal assembly nationwide.  Konda, a polling firm that 
correctly forecasted the 2007 national elections results, 
overshot support for AKP at 47.9 percent. Other firms had AKP 
at 45.6 percent (Veritas) and 51.9 percent (Metropoll). Only 
A&G correctly predicted support for AKP below 40 percent; 
placing them at 39.8 percent. 
 
¶3. (U) Many polling companies also over-predicted the margin 
of victory for AKP in the mayoral contests in Istanbul and 
Ankara.  Metropoll and Veritas showed wide double digit 
margins for the AKP candidate in each city, while the results 
were much closer at 6-7 percentage points.  Veritas widely 
overestimated support for AKP in many other mayoral races, 
wrongly calling the AKP candidate in nearly all its reported 
surveys. Sonar Research also overshot support for AKP for 
Ankara,s mayoral race.  Even A&G overestimated support for 
AKP in Istanbul, while underestimating support for the 
party,s candidate in Ankara.  While the polls correctly 
called the winners of the four major races in the local 
elections -- Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, and Diyarbakir -- the 
wide, statistically significant gap between the actual result 
and the predicted numbers argue against the general quality 
of polling in Turkey. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Common Polling Problems in Turkey 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Statistical failures of this scale across a number 
of polling companies suggest that polling methodology in 
Turkey is weak.  Past reporting questioned the quality of 
Turkish polling, particularly Anar Research and Pollmark; 
however, one Turkish firm was found to use acceptable survey 
methods ) Infakto Research (reftel).  Emre Erdogan, Chairman 
of Infakto told us his company deliberately does not conduct 
many polls, focusing instead on conducting quality surveys. 
State-INR, the Maryland based World Public Opinion, and the 
International Republican Institute all have commissioned 
Infakto to conduct polls in Turkey. Infakto does not do 
polling for political parties, though it occasionally has 
done work for individual candidates. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Emre Erdogan, who trained under prominent Turkish 
survey research academics Ersin Kalaycioglu and Ali Carkoglu, 
criticized many pollsters for only operating in an election 
year.  These firms often hire inexperienced temporary 
interviewers.  In addition, many firms do not spend resources 
for quality control and there is little accountability for 
producing erroneous results, according to Erdogan. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Another typical mistake most Turkish polling firms 
commit is the use of quota sampling for achieving 
predetermined targets for the proportion of certain sectors 
of Turkish society.  While this can be an acceptable method, 
it assumes the polling firm has a perfect understanding of 
the demographics of Turkish society to set the quota.  This 
is a dubious assumption, given that the Turkish state itself 
only discovered last year that it had underestimated the 
number of Turkish voters by several million people.  One 
 
ISTANBUL 00000180  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
exception was A&G Research; Chairman Adil Gur told us his 
firm randomly picked its respondents, without setting out to 
achieve certain numbers of target groups. 
 
¶7. (SBU) How polling firms manipulate the data is another 
source of error.  The most common mistake is to drop the 
undecided respondents in a survey, thus proportionally 
increasing the value of those who indicated support for a 
party.  This assumes undecided voters will act like decided 
voters at the ballot box, an often erroneous assumption. 
This mistake can severely distort the accuracy of the poll, 
since undecided respondents can often account for 20-30 
percent of a survey,s total respondents. Other methods of 
data manipulation can add additional error to a survey; even 
with the best intentions of the researcher, data weighting 
can introduce inaccuracies if the fundamental assumptions on 
which they are based are mistaken.  The general lack of 
transparency of most published polls in Turkey increases the 
possibility that additional error entered the data after the 
results were collected. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Despite these problems the general consensus among 
academics and industry leaders is that polling in Turkey has 
improved over the past ten years.  The growth of foreign 
direct investment in Turkey has increased the demand for 
quality survey research.  Also, Turkish universities now 
conduct classes in scientific survey research, compared to 
the past where students needed to go abroad to learn these 
methods, according to Emre Erdogan.  He also stressed that 
interviewers can ask more sensitive questions today than they 
could five years ago. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Still, there is a large gap in quality as some firms 
continue to conduct shoddy or biased polls.  Some industry 
leaders that we talked with, including from Konda, A&G, 
Genar, Anar, told us they strive to attain accurate results 
by expending the resources needed to reach out to all the 
regions of Turkey, including remote rural areas and poor 
outer suburban areas surrounding major Turkish cities 
(Varos).  The above firms also hired Kurdish speaking 
interviewers when conducting polls in predominately Kurdish 
areas.  However, many firms fail to go beyond the major 
cities or do not strive to randomly select their respondents. 
 
 
¶10. (SBU) Industry leaders and academics highlighted Konda 
and A&G as two of the better polling firms in Turkey.  Emre 
Erdogan noted Konda used good methods and was not influenced 
by politics.  During the lead-up to the 2007 national 
elections, Konda was criticized for producing results that 
showed strong support for the ruling Justice and Development 
Party (AKP). Konda,s data proved to be an accurate forecast 
of the election, as most commentators were caught by surprise 
by the level of AKP,s victory in 2007.  The head of Genar 
Research, M. Teyfik Goksu told us Konda and A&G both strive 
to conduct sound polling without a political bias. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Looking under the Hood at Konda and A&G 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Chairman Agir Dir told us Konda has been conducting 
scientific polls in Turkey for over two decades, following 
methods used by American polling firms.  His firm only 
conducts face-to-face interviews by trained pollsters.  Konda 
does not focus its business on political polling; instead it 
conducts numerous regular projects that include marketing and 
social research.  Konda conducted the most comprehensive 
non-governmental survey of the Turkish people in 2007. The 
poll, titled &Who are we?8 commissioned by Milliyet 
newspaper, interviewed 47,000 people in 79 out of 81 
provinces in Turkey to gather social and ethnic information 
on the Turkish people.  Konda has since conducted subsequent 
surveys in conjunction with Milliyet on topics such as 
religion and ethnicity, two extremely sensitive topics in 
Turkey.  Agirdir told us these surveys could not had been 
conducted five years ago, noting that Turks are now able to 
talk more openly on these issues.  (NOTE: Some Infakto 
interviewers conducting a poll regarding Armenian issues were 
detained by security forces in Eastern Anatolia in 2004. END 
NOTE.) 
 
 
¶12. (SBU) Adil Gur, Chairman of A&G, told us his company 
 
ISTANBUL 00000180  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
strives to produce accurate polls because &reputation is the 
greatest currency for a polling company.8  He stressed A&G 
does not conduct polling for political parties, noting many 
foreign investment banks commission surveys with his firm. 
Gur said his firm only conducts face-to-face polling, arguing 
that telephone polling fails to get a random sample. Gur also 
stresses that, for national election polling, his firm uses 
only trained interviewers that go out to all 81 provinces. 
Also, he insisted he used Kurdish speaking interviewers in 
the southeast; however, these people cannot have connections 
with either AKP or the pro-Kurdish (DTP). 
 
----------------------- 
Other polling Companies 
----------------------- 
 
¶13. (U) Other polling companies have not used proper methods 
and this has affected their ability to forecast election 
results. For example, Metropoll poorly estimated support for 
AKP in the 2007 election and the 2009 local election; its 
latest data showed AKP getting nearly 52 percent of the 
nationwide vote, 14 percentage points over the actual vote. 
Metropoll uses telephone polling, a questionable means to 
achieve randomness because hard line telephone penetration is 
relatively low in the eastern provinces, according to many 
polling experts in Turkey.  Most other firms opted to conduct 
the more expensive face-to-face polling for that reason. 
Furthermore, Metropoll refuses to employ Kurdish speaking 
interviewers; according to chairman Sencar, Kurdish speakers 
are unreliable since they are &politically biased8. 
Reporting from 2005 also found Metropoll,s survey 
methodology questionable (reftel). 
 
¶14. (SBU) Some polling companies appear to be politically 
motivated, publishing favorable results in likeminded 
newspapers.  On the final day allowed by law to report 
opinion polls before the March 2009 election, the Fethullah 
Gulen supported newspaper, Zaman published a massive poll 
conducted by VERITAS research, predicting a &crushing 
victory8 for AKP.  This poll uniformly overestimated support 
for AKP in 16 mayoral contests as well as the overall 
national vote. 
 
¶15. (SBU) Other polling firms also have clear political 
sympathies, but their numbers do not always fall according to 
their prejudices.  Sonar research Chairman A. Hakan Bayrakci 
told us he does not like AKP or Saadet Party (SP) and does 
not accept commission polls for them because he views them as 
parties with a demonstrated religious agenda.  Sonar,s 
results before the 2009 local elections were a voice among 
many other firms that overshot support for AKP.  Sonar did 
underestimate support for AKP in the 2007 national elections, 
however, Bayrakci failed to provide details of Sonar,s 
polling methods, despite our questions on the subject. 
 
 
---------------------------------- 
Polling Companies with Ties to AKP 
---------------------------------- 
 
16 (SBU) A number of polling firms have close ties with the 
ruling AKP and/or Prime Minister Erdogan.  Both Emre Erdogan 
and the press reported the Prime Minister has commissioned 
polls from Ankara Social Research Center (Anar), Pollmark, 
Denge Research, and Genar.  Anar has a long history with the 
AKP:  Interior Minister Besir Atalay used to be Anar,s 
chairman before entering politics; the current chairman, 
Erdogan Uslu, has served as an AKP advisor; and Uslu used to 
share an office in Anar with current President and former AKP 
PM Abdullah Gul (reftel).  Emre Erdogan and the press also 
reported that Denge,s Chairman, Hasan Basri Yildiz, is the 
Prime Minister,s cousin.  Genar Chairman M. Teyfik Goksu 
successfully ran as the AKP candidate for mayor for the 
Istanbul district of Esenler in the local elections. 
According to Emre Erdogan, Pollmark is close to the AKP 
leadership.  He told us the Prime Minister refuses to use 
Metropoll ) despite the more religious attitude of the firm 
-- because Metropoll,s founding members left Pollmark to 
establish their own completing company. (COMMENT: Despite 
these firms, ties to AKP, it is unclear if they bias their 
results in favor of the ruling party.  Pollmark, Denge, and 
Genar, all underestimated support for AKP in their published 
results before the 2007 national elections. END COMMMENT.) 
 
 
ISTANBUL 00000180  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
The opposition,s ambivalence towards polling 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
 
¶17. (SBU) According to Metropoll Chairman Ozer Sencar, other 
political parties have not shown much interest in using 
polling data.  CHP party chairman Baykal said on a televised 
interview that he does not trust polls.  Sencar told us 
Baykal chooses candidates based on closeness to the party, 
despite polling data showing alternative candidates with 
greater popular appeal. 
 
¶18. (SBU) Comment: Public opinion research has improved in 
Turkey, yet poorly conducted polling results will continue to 
flood Turkey,s sensationalistic newspapers.  Reliable firms, 
such as A&G and Konda, appear determined to improve their 
methods and to start consistently providing accurate 
forecasts.  The demand for accurate poll results ) 
especially from international businesses -- will likely 
increase accountability and thus standards for the industry. 
Political parties that use polling as part of their campaign 
strategy ) the ruling AKP, for example ) may benefit from 
the increased quality of survey research. However, as a 
governing party, AKP could also find itself unable to take 
hard political decisions that run contrary to prevailing 
public opinion. 
Wiener