President Erdogan and his party have been accused of hypocrisy after the opposition revealed the presidential palace was running up a daily electricity bill of over GBP 5,000 while ruling-party deputies campaigned against waste.

Turkey’s main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, took to Twitter on 26th August to tell his political adversary to “turn off the lights” at the 1,150-room Presidential Compound in the capital Ankara, which was inaugurated by the Turkish president in 2014.

Directly addressing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the ruling right-wing Justice and Development Party (AKP), Kilicdaroglu of the centre-left Republican People’s Party (CHP) wrote: “The people can’t keep up with your pompous display”.

The main opposition party revealed on 2nd September that the compound was racking up an astronomical daily electricity bill of TRY 60,000 (GBP 5,232) – resulting in a staggering annual charge to the taxpayer of TRY 21.6 million (GBP 1.88 million).

To add insult to injury, the revelation comes at a time when AKP deputies have been conducting awareness campaigns nationwide to discourage waste – opening them up to the charge of hypocrisy.

CHP Vice President Gursel Tekin also voiced his criticisms, remarking that the electricity consumption of the Presidential Compound alone was equivalent to the total electricity consumption of hundreds of the city’s districts.

He remarked: “Experts say that this amount approximately equals the average total of electricity used in 17,000 homes. This money could cover basic expenses for 250,000 people for a whole month.”

President Erdogan has often been dubbed a “sultan” since his ascent to the premiership in 2003, and he has been accused of liberally spending public money on lavish construction projects – including the Presidential Compound, which cost around USD 1.2 billion (GBP 0.87 billion).