Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the secular party CHP, will run as an opposition candidate against current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Turkish elections on May 14. This is reported by Reuters news agency on Monday. By forming a bloc, six opposition parties hope to win against Erdogan.
On Friday there was still disagreement about the candidacy of 74-year-old Kilicdaroglu. The nationalist IYI Party disagreed with the decision to pit the economist against Erdogan and therefore withdrew from the opposition alliance. According to the IYI party leader, Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu or Ankara mayor Mansur Yavas would be better candidates. On Monday, the six parties reached a compromise and agreed to a proposal from the IYI Party. Will Kilicdaroglu win? Then both mayors become vice presidents.
The parliamentary and presidential elections on 14 May are major elections for Turkey. Analysts say it is the last resort to prevent the country from becoming a full autocracy. Under the leadership of Kilicdaroglu, the opposition vows to reverse Erdogan’s policy of increasingly usurping power. Kilicdaroglu wants to rule the country with “deliberation and consensus” and lead it to “prosperity, peace and joy”.
Although the opposition is doing well in the polls, things are getting tense: according to Reuters, the opposition bloc is slightly ahead in the poll. Despite Erdogan’s waning popularity due to factors including high inflation and last month’s devastating earthquakes, the president and his party retain the support of a significant portion of the population.
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