The opposition parties, which consist of far-right, secularist and Islamist conservative political parties, have so far failed to unite around a joint candidate, and will likely compete separately against the candidate of the People's Alliance, formed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The secularist Republican People's Party (CHP), the far-right Good Party (İP) and the Islamist conservative Felicity Party (SP) have been in intense political talks since last week among party officials, despite distant ideological stances, around an "anti-Erdoğan" shared ground.
Political circles in Ankara suggest that as the opposition has now failed to participate in the elections around a joint candidate for the first round of the elections on June 24, the strategy is to participate with separate candidates and with this move, they expect, to maximize receiving votes for the opposition candidates. This is expected to result in not one candidate eligible to pass the 50+1 threshold in the presidential elections and set the grounds for the second round, where the top two candidates will compete. In such a scenario, however, both the CHP and İP leadership have said they would support each other's candidate, whoever is left to compete as the top two candidates receiving the most votes.
In addition to these strategies, the SP and İP will reportedly form an alliance for the parliamentary elections to achieve a majority in Parliament. With the changes that come with the new system, all parties in an election alliance will pass the election threshold if the alliance itself receives enough votes to pass the 10 percent election threshold.
CHP, İP officials say Gül not candidate
Meetings between SP officials and former President Abdullah Gül, coupled with political rumors, had suggested that Gül would be running for president as the joint candidate of the trilateral anti-Erdoğan bloc. However, with the intraparty criticism of CHP deputies against Gül being their candidate and İP Chairwoman Meral Akşener announcing that she is not giving up on running for president, the SP is now left as the sole party in reported negotiations with the former president for candidacy.
Main opposition CHP officials have also rejected Gül's joint candidacy as an option, saying the CHP candidate should be a member of the party or with leftist tendencies. CHP Yalova Deputy Muharrem İnce wrote on his twitter account Wednesday that Gül should not be a CHP candidate, saying the former president's stance clashed with that of the CHP. Özgür Özel, CHP group vice chairman, also wrote on his twitter account that Gül was not "a name on the party's agenda." Meanwhile, CHP Vice Chairman Bülent Tezcan said on Wednesday that the party's candidate would be a figure that will embrace and represent the diversity in the country.
Leading figures in the CHP have reportedly put forward four names as the party's candidate during the party's closed-door meeting on Wednesday. These names are Özgür Özel, Muharrem İnce, Eskişehir province Mayor Yılmaz Büyükerşen and Istanbul Deputy İlhan Kesici.
İnce is one of the leading dissident voices in the CHP against Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, while Büyükerşen has been a popular name among the traditional center-left CHP voters. However, Kesici is known for his center-right political past, before joining the CHP. While Kılıçdaroğlu's closed-door meeting with deputies was continuing, Tezcan and Istanbul Deputy Mehmet Bekaroğlu paid a visit to the SP. Tezcan and Özel also met with the chairman of Democrat Party (DP) Gültekin Uysal on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Kılıçdaroğlu was also scheduled a meeting with the SP leader yesterday, who also met with Akşener Wednesday.
In an interview published yesterday in Hürriyet daily, İnce said he was confident he would win against Erdoğan. Kesici, on the other hand, reportedly said that his chances were higher, as he would be able to get votes from the center-right AK Party electoral base. The CHP executive mechanisms have given the ultimate decision-making role to Kılıçdaroğlu.
According to sources, Kılıçdaroğlu's ideal candidate to run for president is a figure that would have strong economy acumen and a figure that would not get involved in harsh rhetoric during the election campaign.
On the İP pole, on the other hand, Akşener insists on running for president herself. "As I have previously announced, I am the candidate of the Good Party with 100,000 signatures," said Akşener, following a meeting with CHP Chairman Kılıçdaroğlu in Ankara on Wednesday. A candidate for presidential elections should either be nominated by political party groups in Parliament, meaning at least 20 deputies from political parties that obtained at least 5 percent of the vote in the last parliamentary elections or 100,000 voters, according to Article 101 of the Constitution.
The Islamist conservative SP has also not announced a candidate yet, though intense negotiations are reportedly continuing with Gül. SP Chairman Temel Karamollaoğluhad a closed-door meeting with Gül in Istanbul on Wednesday, however, no details were shared with the media after the meeting.
The AK Party and the MHP formed the People's Alliance ahead of the announced snap elections date. The alliance is also supported by the nationalist Great Unity Party (BBP). Former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu also announced yesterday that he will be supporting Erdoğan as a candidate, though he will not run in the parliamentary elections.
11 parties to run in June 24 polls
Meanwhile, the Supreme Election Council (YSK) announced yesterday that 11 parties will participate in the upcoming elections. The YSK said on Sunday that 10 parties, including the AK Party, CHP and MHP will run in the parliamentary and presidential elections. However, the Free Cause Party (Hüda-Par) is also announced as party that will compete in the elections. The other parties set to compete are the pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the SP, the BBP, the Independent Turkey Party (BTP), the Democrat Party (DP), the Patriotic (Vatan) Party and the newly formed İP.
