Men sit in a teahouse beneath posters for the AKP and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, centre, in Istanbul on Tuesday.Kerem Uzel/Bloomberg
Less than a week before parliamentary elections, the ruling party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on the defensive.
After 13 years in power, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has lost ground even among supporters who were comfortable with its conservative Islamist values. That spells trouble for Mr. Erdogan's hopes of getting a big enough win to change the political system and invest more power in the presidency.
The loss of faith is evident in some of the working-class neighbourhoods of old Istanbul, where the AKP has its roots. Many people say they feel they were left behind when Turkey's economy was booming and will still be disadvantaged now that growth has slowed.
In Kasimpasa, Bilal Atasoy, a 45-year-old motorcycle mechanic, stands in front of his rundown shop and points to a nearby street crammed with brand-new glass-clad buildings. "There were barbers, butchers, corner stores all over that street, with families operating them," he says. They are gone now. Big business bought the land and built luxury apartments for the rich. Soon, it'll be my turn. I will have to close shop and go I don't know where."
The AKP has been in power since 2002, winning majorities that allowed it to break the deadlock of weak coalition governments that marked Turkish politics for decades. While its clearly Islamist bent worried many people in this constitutionally secular nation, its promises of economic reform and clean government (the party's acronym, "AK" means white or pure in Turkish) gave Mr. Erdogan's party a stunning majority. Much of that enthusiasm has dimmed.
"When he came to power in 2002, I said to myself, 'Here is a man who means business, a democratic man with strong Islamic ethics,'" Bulent Kuscu, an independent real estate agent, said as he sat in his office in the modern shopping district of Sisli. "I thought it was good for the country."
But in recent years, he adds, the party's image has been tarnished. "His ministers were involved in corruption-related probes. They had to resign. Now I think twice. And … the economy isn't getting any better."
According to the latest polls, the AKP will win Sunday's elections but likely not by a landslide as Mr. Erdogan's popularity has declined. There has been much debate in Turkish political and academic circles about whether Mr. Erdogan then would, or even could, push through his proposal to change the system from a strong prime ministerial one to a strong presidential one.
Mr. Erdogan grew up in a rough neighbourhood of Istanbul, and just around the corner from where he lived until his early 20s, some residents now see him as just as fallible and even unsavoury as any politician. "They will win the elections once again despite all the corruption," Ibrahim Elmas said. The 26-year-old, who operates a small glassware store elsewhere in Kasimpasa, speaks disparagingly of the lavish $600-million (U.S.) palace the President had built for his offices in the capital, Ankara. "But who else to vote for? No one in the opposition is a credible replacement."
But what appears to some as excess is seen by other working-class Turks as national pride. "I'm glad President Erdogan built that palace," said Erol Sari, who owns a pastry shop next to Mr. Elmas's store. "It was a necessity. It'll be there for other presidents after him. I'll always vote for him."
In Fatih, famous for its Islamic seminaries built by Mehmet the Conqueror in 15th century and long a bastion of religious conservatism, some people express disappointment that Mr. Erdogan and his party had not managed to isolate Turkey from modernization.
"See these businesses?" says Ahmet Zeytinoglu, a 22-year-old parking attendant who predicts an easy AKP win. He points to a series of stores carved into the seminary walls all along the famous Fatih Mosque, one of the jewels of early Ottoman architecture. "They all used to sell traditional Islamic women's clothing. Now they sell modern women's clothing. Times have changed. The globalization caught up with Turkey."