More Kurdish voters prefer a woman presidential candidate

According to a poll conducted in Turkey's Kurdish-majority settlements by the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), four out of every 10 Kurdish voters say they would like to see a woman run as HDP's presidential candidate in the coming 2023 elections, while three out of every 10 express preference for a man.

The poll results has had HDP officials focusing more on women candidates, Euronews Turkish said.

"There is a rising women's struggle against the AKP-MHP administration, and this is an important factor" a HDP official said, adding: "We would like to run with a woman candidate who is sensitive to many issues, and a leading figure who the people trust."

Among the potential candidates are political scientist Sebnem Oguz, women's rights activist Nurten Ertugrul, and writer Aysegul Devecioglu, according to Euronews.

When asked if they will support an Alevi candidate in the presidential election, 85% of the respondents said yes.

While 74.3% of the respondents stated that they will vote for the HDP candidate, 10% said they will vote for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, current Turkish president and the leader of the ruling Justice and and Development Party (AKP), 3.8% said they will vote for Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

Asked who they would vote for if the HDP candidate competed with Erdogan in the second round, 82.7% said they would vote for the HDP candidate against 11% who said they would vote for Erdogan.

Asked who they would vote for if Kilicdaroglu and Erdogan competed in the second round, 58.6% said Kilicdaroglu against 9.3% who said Erdogan, while 24% said they would vote for neither.

However, asked a similar question in a slightly different way (who they would vote for if the candidates of the opposition Nation Alliance and the ruling People's Alliance competed in the second round), 63.1% said they would vote for the candidate that HDP expressed support for, 14.2%, for the candidate of the Nation Alliance, and 10.7%, for the People's Alliance.

76.1% of respondents think a HDP candidate should definitely run in the presidential election, while only 14.7% think it should not run with its own candidate and instead support the candidate of the Nation Alliance. 16% said they were undecided.

Asked who they would vote for in the case of HDP's closure by the Turkish Constitutional Court, 79.4% of the Kurdish voters said they would vote for the party HDP officials expressed support for, 7% said they would vote for CHP, and 1.7% said they would vote for AKP. 7% said they would boycott the election in that kind of situation.