On Sunday, local elections will take place in Turkey against a backdrop of turmoil. In recent months, a corruption investigation has allegedly disclosed that members of Erdoğan’s cabinet took bribes, resulting in the demotion of four ministers. Then, anonymous whistleblowers leaked wiretapped recordings of Turkey’s hotheaded Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his son allegedly disposing of large amounts of cash. As speculations spread, the government reacted by blocking access to Twitter. (On Wednesday, a court overturned the ban.) Meanwhile, the protests that began last year rekindled recently with tens of thousands marching the streets.

Under normal circumstances, such unrest would likely signal a drastic change in a country’s political landscape. But Turkey’s current government—especially Erdoğan—still appears to be standing strong. How have Erdoğan and his party, the AKP, maintained their position?

One reason is the ruling government’s relatively liberal attitude toward aid. One of the landmark features of the AKP's local governing system is the party’s continuous offer of free gas, coal, provisions and even financial aid to voters in rural areas. “They’ve first made the people poorer and now dependent on government aid,” says Mustafa Sarıgül, the opposition party’s mayoral candidate in Istanbul. “They’re using scare tactics and spreading false rumors that we’ll cut their aid. Their campaign budget is 1.5 billion dollars.”

Another reason is that for less well-off voters, corruption just doesn’t rank as a primary issue. “Poorer voters,” posits Bülent Gültekin, former governor of Turkey’s Central Bank and now a professor of finance at Wharton, “don’t regard corruption allegations as sin.” Corruption, he says, “always existed in Turkey, especially in local governments.” But Erdoğan, he allows, “made it more organized.”

Then there’s the charisma factor. “Erdoğan’s skills as an orator allows him to explain his anti-democratic steps to his voter base,” says Melih Aşık, a writer for the Milliyet daily. The AKP’s campaign heavily relies on Erdoğan’s cult of personality, placing the leader’s photographs, rather than the candidates’, on posters. Erdoğan often takes center stage on the campaign trail as well. One of Erdoğan’s advantages as a politician, as Aşık points out, is that “for many citizens he has no alternative and the opposition parties don’t seem to be adequate.”