Opposition alliance fractures after IYI Party leader Meral Akşener announces withdrawal from bloc ahead of May elections
Türkiye's opposition alliance fractured on Friday after IYI Party leader Merak Akşenet refused to endorse CHP chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as a joint candidate against incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The cracks emerged a day after the six opposition party leaders held a meeting in Ankara to discuss whom to field against Erdogan in the May 14 polls.
- Turkish Politics
- Reuters
- Published Date: 04:55 | 03 March 2023
- Modified Date: 05:10 | 03 March 2023
Türkiye's nationalist IYI Party leader Meral Akşener said on Friday the six-party opposition alliance of which her party was a member no longer reflected the national will, announcing her party's withdrawal from the grouping ahead of the May elections.
Akşener told a news conference that the IYI Party's proposed presidential candidates, the mayors of Istanbul and Ankara, were not accepted by the other five parties and she called on the mayors to do their duty, in an apparent invitation for them to stand as candidates.
The other five parties in the alliance had agreed on Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), as their joint candidate to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the May 14 elections.
- Pollsters show support for Erdoğan and AK Party largely unscathed after devastating earthquakes
- Ankara denies U.S. State Department report on terrorism for 'deliberately distorting facts'
- Erdoğan announces Türkiye elections will be held on May 14
- Türkiye, Armenia hope quake relief efforts speed up normalization