Do you follow the election campaigns? Turkey is now surrounded with the election atmosphere. Do not get tricked that it is the referendum that will be carried out and it is glamorized with a number of issues; an election is an election. The citizens of this country feel free and at liberty only in front of the ballot box since 1950's. When you are in front of the box, it is your satisfaction with your life that determines the outcome. If you are satisfied, you vote yes and vice versa. If you are hopeful that everything will be all right, you vote yes. If you are not you vote no. In this context, I believe that the crisis hits the ballot box either in Turkey or in other parts of the world. Please note that this is what happened also during the previous local elections. Please give an ear to my word first.

Turkey is not the only country in the election atmosphere, though it may be the only country that will be in the election atmosphere continuously until 2014. Anyway, elections will be hold shortly also in the United States of America. The Congressional midterm elections will be held in two months. Everyone is busy with carrying out election campaigns. According to a post in prestigious US paper New York Times featured on last Friday, 'Fewer Young Voters See Themselves as Democrats'. Young voters constituted an important group that voted for the Democrats led by President Obama 2008 in both houses of the Congress. Back than, 62 percent of the people at 18-28 age group said they were Democrats while 30 percent considered themselves as Republicans. But recent surveys indicate that the more than 30 percent gap between Democrats and Republicans has been narrowing gradually. As of the end of 2009, support for Democrats dropped by almost 8 points to 54 percent. And at the beginning of 2010, the rate stood at 57 percent. In the meanwhile, it is apparent that the loss of Democrats is the gain of Republicans. In short, as surveys imply, fewer young voters see themselves as Democrats. Why could this be? It is quite simple: with purely material reasons. Since the 2008 elections, the country encountered the 2008 crisis. Hike of unemployment and the newly generated jobs not being satisfactory for young people are considered as significant factors in this respect. So, when you are in front of the ballot box, it is your satisfaction with your life that determines your decision. This is the case all around the world. Recovery process not being impressive enough appears to have an implication in the ballot box in the US. The harm caused by the crisis on the public seems to damage the ruling party at the ballot box. This is most probably why Democrats try to change a strategy to focus on what can be won and to maintain the majority either in the House of Representatives or the Senate. Nancy Pelosi, Democrat speaker at the House of Representatives sends mails to the Democrat members of the House in order to set a common pool of funds and channel the fund to areas that can be win. So it appears that the crisis hits the ballot box. What is more, Democrats cannot be blamed for the crisis. What can we say? "An issue has a significant economic direction if not completely economic."

Then, can we expect a similar development in Turkey? We had better assess the overall situation at the eve of the long election atmosphere. In Turkey young voters are of even higher importance since they are higher in number. They constitute almost 32 percent of voters. And we have a survey on the way. Let us see what the voters between 18-28 years of age will decide in the coming referendum. We will be knowing the result on the morning of September 13^th. By the way, there also are a number of surveys on the results of the original survey. But what I see is that 'no' is still the dominant decision for the voters between 18 and 28. Why? With the same motivation with young voters in the US: because they are not satisfied with the current milieu. What is more, referendum is a suitable way of showing the dissatisfaction. Do not you think so? More importantly, it will not overthrow the ruling party for now.

How does the saying go? "It's the economy!"

I am sorry but I will not say "It's the economy, stupid!"

This commentary was published in Referans daily on 07.09.2010