President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has handed a bumper pay rise to 700,000 Turkish public sector workers just days before a tightly contested election, the latest in a series of handouts aimed at convincing voters to back him in Sunday’s vote.
The Turkish leader announced on Tuesday that lower-level government workers would receive a pay boost of 45 per cent, saying he would “not let anyone be crushed by inflation”.
Erdoğan faces Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who represents a six-party opposition alliance, in a poll that analysts say is one of the most important since the president came to power two decades ago. Erdoğan’s popularity has fallen as the purchasing power of many Turks has tumbled due to soaring inflation and a lira that is trading at record lows against the US dollar.