Roundup: Political competition intensifies in Turkey ahead of June elections

With less than three weeks left to Turkey's parliamentary elections, four major political parties intensified their campaign bids in order to woo more voters with increased social benefits, more jobs and better economic conditions.

The elections are scheduled on June 7 in order to select 550 Grand National Assembly members. This is the country's 24th general election with elected members to form the 25th Turkish parliament.

Leaders of the four political parties held public rallies in various provinces across the country, with a population of 78 million, to communicate their messages to the public.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chairman and current Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu promised local residents in Karaman on Monday that the high-speed train will be extended from Konya to link the province to the rest of the country.

After a string of setbacks, the high-speed train line between the Turkish capital city of Ankara and the largest city of Istanbul was opened last summer.

Another high-speed line between Istanbul and the central Anatolian city of Konya opened in December 2014, significantly reducing travel time.

The AKP is pitching major infrastructure projects including high speed train railways, airport and bridge constructions to convince undecided voters to support the ruling party.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the main opposition leader of the Republican Peoples' Party (CHP), was in Erzincan on Monday, pledging to write-off a bulk of interest debts accumulated on credit cards and personal loans for voters.

Nearly five million Turkish citizens can expect to benefit from the scheme in the first phase.

On Sunday's rally in Nigde, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) complained about rising costs of living, income inequality and soaring unemployment. He said his party will urgently address these problems when it comes to power.

The fourth major party, the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), is the most crucial party in determining the outcome of the June 7 elections. If it passes 10 percent of the national threshold, it will likely rob the AKP of substantial majority votes and form the government alone.

The party suffered violent attacks Monday when two bombs hit the HDP offices in two cities Monday, wounding six people. One explosion was in Mersin city, where HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas was to hold an election rally.

Nevertheless, Demirtas went ahead with the rally and accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of masterminding the attacks.

Erdogan, hoping the elections will land a landslide victory for the ruling AKP, therefore paving the way for his executive presidency, has been campaigning unofficially on behalf of the AKP.

Commenting on the bomb attacks, Demirtas said the HDP got the message and vowed it will not allow Erdogan to become executive president.

"Erdogan's and the AKP's anti-HDP rhetoric is driven by fear that Kurdish voters will choose the HDP over the AKP this time around," analyst Cafer Solgun said.

"The opposition parties are full of promises to voters these days. But the AKP, unable to whip up projects, has resorted to attacking the opposition," he said.

Yavuz Baydar, another Turkish political analyst, said that votes continue to slip away from the ruling AKP.

"The entry of the HDP into parliament would turn the 12-year-long political status quo upside down," Baydar said.

The latest polling data suggest that the ruling AKP is still in the lead but may fall short of gaining enough seats to form a single-paty government.

The Gezici Research Company said that the governing party's popularity dropped to all-time low at 38.2 percent.

Other surveys put the AKP votes between 38 to 45 percent range.

The AKP received 43 percent of the votes in local elections last year and almost 50 percent in the 2011 parliamentary elections. Endit