Tue 07 March 2023:
Turkish opposition parties on Monday declared Kemal Kilicdaroglu as a candidate against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the upcoming May election.
One of the biggest parties in the opposition alliance, the nationalist IYI party, had been reluctant to endorse his nomination. The decision to announce Kilicdaroglu’s name came after “a 72-hour-long crisis and intense negotiations between the six oppositional leaders,” reports Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News.
Kilicdaroglu heads the center-left Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP) party, the main force in the multi-party opposition alliance.
BBC has reported that Kilicdaroglu is known as “Gandhi Kemal” or “Turkey’s Gandhi” for his resemblance to Mahatma Gandhi. He is also soft-spoken.
He has the support of four smaller parties in the alliance and all of the country’s mayors. In the past 13 years of leading the CHP, Kilicdaroglu has not managed to win a national election.
Millet İttifakının Sayın Genel Başkanlarına, duydukları güven için teşekkür ederim. Şimdi el ele, omuz omuza yürüyeceğimiz uzun bir yolumuz var. Cumhuriyetimizi demokrasiyle taçlandıracağız.
Başlıyoruz!@T_Karamollaoglu @meral_aksener @alibabacan @Ahmet_Davutoglu @DpGultekinUysal pic.twitter.com/ZFN7DMOi0m— Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (@kilicdarogluk) March 6, 2023
Opposition not united
The IYI party, believed to be the second-strongest force in the alliance, on Monday proposed two other CHP members, the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, and the mayor of Ankara, Mansur Yavas as candidates for vice president.
The CHP accepted the compromise in an attempt to reunite the opposition bloc.
IYI leader Meral Aksener had already said on Friday she would not back Kilicdaroglu’s nomination and walked away from the six-party group.
She had hoped Imamoglu or Yavas would be the main candidate. The two mayors both performed better than their party leader in public opinion polls.
“I’m sorry to say that, as of yesterday, the Table of Six has lost its ability to reflect the will of the nation in its decisions,” Aksener told reporters after meeting senior IYI party officials.
According to Aksener, the chances of Kilicdaroglu winning are slim.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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