AKP, MHP to hold joint election rallies for March 31 elections

ANKARA

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) will hold joint rallies as part of their “People’s Alliance” in three metropolises of Turkey for the upcoming local elections.

The alliance’s electoral campaign will kick off in the Aegean province of İzmir on March 17.

Following İzmir, the parties’ rallies will move to Ankara on March 23. And just a day after, on March 24, another joint election rally will be held in Istanbul.

So far, the AKP has launched a total of 17 rallies, while the MHP has just started determining its campaign swing on Feb. 27 at a meeting of the party’s central executive board with provincial heads.

But the MHP will hold its first rally, after the finalization of its mayoral candidate lists on March 3, in the Söğüt district of the northwestern province of Bilecik.

Mehmet Özhaseki, the AKP’s mayoral candidate for the capital Ankara, had announced on Feb. 11 that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, also chairman of the AKP, and Devlet Bahçeli, the MHP leader, will hold a joint rally in Ankara. But the date has not been specified yet.

After their joint efforts to win the referendum to shift to a presidential system in 2017, the AKP and MHP formed the People’s Alliance ahead of the June 24, 2018 elections.

Their alliance will cover 51 provinces out of all 81 in the upcoming local elections.