CHP leader predicts polls will occur in September

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has predicted the elections will take place in September, nine months before the scheduled time, as he believes that the government would not be able to run the economy properly.

“My prediction is that the elections will be held in September,” Kılıçdaroğlu said in a televised interview late Jan. 8.

The presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place in June 2023. President and chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reiterates that the polls will take place on time.

Kılıçdaroğlu said they would topple the current government by winning the upcoming elections. On a question about the presidential candidate of the opposition alliance, Kılıçdaroğlu repeated that the decision over who will run for the presidency will be given by the components of the opposition alliance, the Nation Alliance, comprised of the CHP, the İYİ (Good) Party, the Democrat Party and the Felicity Party.

“Our nominee will run against the [executive-presidential] system,” he suggested.

On an ongoing probe against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Kılıçdaroğlu stressed that the government could never digest losing the municipal elections in Istanbul and Ankara in 2019 polls. Recalling that the probe was launched to investigate whether İmamoğlu has recruited people with terror links, Kılıçdaroğlu said, “If these men are terrorists, why they [the government] have not acted until now? They could have taken legal action. If these men are terrorists, then how come you [the government] did not do anything?”