42 Pct Of Turks' Votes Not Swayed By Corruption: Survey

More than two-fifth of Turks have claimed their votes are not swayed by allegations of corruption directed towards political parties, a survey conducted by Transparency International Turkey has shown, underscoring that awareness of corruption cases which directly affect personal finances is not present for political corruption allegations in determining voting behavior.

Nearly 42 percent of Turks claimed their vote would not be swayed by allegations of corruption directed against political parties, according to research conducted by Transparency International Turkey, the Turkey branch of Transparency International, a global corruption watchdog.

The research revealed that corruption allegations would influence party votes in the case of an economic downturn, indicating the economy has a major role in voting behavior among Turks.

The research was conducted with 2,000 respondents – half female and half male – 70 percent of whom had a primary education or lower, and showed that more than half of respondents indicated the alleged involvement of a company in corruption negatively affected the purchase of goods of services they would make from that company.

Some 51 percent of the total 2,000 respondents said the alleged involvement of a company in corruption would negatively affect their purchasing behavior of goods and services from that company, the research revealed, while depicting also that purchasing behavior in such cases would not be negatively affected for 16 percent of Turks.

The research also revealed more than 55 percent of the population in Turkey believed the level of corruption has increased over the past two years, while 13 percent believed the level of corruption has stayed the same.

Some 60 percent of the population believed that levels of corruption will not decrease in the next two years, while 41 percent of them commented that these levels would rise, the research revealed.

Some 67 of the population perceived corruption as rampant, the research showed, commenting on the implication of the level of mistrust the people hold for various institutions of the state.

The respondents identified the institutions in which corruption was the most rampant, in decreasing order, as the media, political parties, local governments and parliament, with high perceptions of corruption in the media, alongside the political apparatus, highlighting the issues of freedom of speech and the freedom to obtain information in the country.

The recent cases of grand corruption scandals which went uninvestigated and the punishment of the public officials and journalists who brought these allegations to light have harmed trust in the rule of law and facilitated the spread of the aforementioned culture of impunity among Turks, the research showed.

The respondents, the research showed, identified the causes of corruption as "immunities and corruption cases that go unpunished," "the lack of public awareness," "the lack or inadequacy of anti-corruption agencies" and "social acceptance of corruption." - Istanbul