P.A. Turkey

Turkish Opposition to Run Joint Candidate Against President Erdogan

Six opposition parties in Turkey said that they will nominate a joint candidate in a bid to end 20-year rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the 2023 presidential elections. The declaration came after the sixth round of meetings among the loose opposition alliance, which also witnessed a commitment to “govern Turkey together”, suggesting a formal coalition is in the works.    The parties currently garner ca 51% of the national votes vs Erdogan’s AKP-MHP alliance’s 39%.

 

Six Turkish opposition parties announced on Sunday that they will nominate a joint presidential candidate for the 2023 elections and expressed confidence that they can defeat strongman leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

 

“Our presidential candidate will be 13th President of the Republic of Turkey and… will be everyone’s president,” they said in a joint statement.

 

The declaration aims to defeat pro-AKP propaganda that the opposition is bickering about a joint candidate and will not contest the next election in unison.

 

The leaders of the six opposition parties claimed that they are more powerful and hopeful than February when they started their initiative to build a larger and more united opposition alliance.

 

“We have become the hopes of our nation with our determination by coming together for the first time on February 12 to say that the logical outcome of the executive presidential system’s natural results, which has been swiftly pushing our country to a disaster, should be stopped,” the statement added.

 

The statement came after the sixth meeting held by the chairs of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, CHP, İYİ (Good) Party, Felicity Party, Democrat Party, Future Party and DEVA Party.

 

The so-called Six Party Table was initiated by Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of social democratic CHP, in February.

 

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The six parties’ pledge in February to work together to end the rule of President Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party, AKP by agreeing on a joint presidential candidate was seen as a major step by political observers.

 

CHP leader Kilicdaroglu, Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and Ankara mayor Mansur Yavas, who are both also members of the CHP, are seen as the most likely presidential candidates to be chosen by the joint opposition.

 

The opposition is also reportedly working on drafting a single election plank, as well as negotiating on key bureaucratic posts the holders of which will be replaced if Erdogan loses the next election.

 

However, the Six Party Table does not include Turkey’s third largest party, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, HDP, whose votes will be important to deciding the winner of the presidential and general elections that must be held by June 2023.

 

In addition to the six-party Nation Alliance, HDP sand Turkish Labor Party are working as an alliance, with five small left-wing parties agreeing to form an alliance last week.

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