CHP urges Davutoğlu to return mandate if coalition talks fail with MHP

“Davutoğlu is now playing for time. Today, at their meeting with the MHP, they may perhaps arrive at a conclusion; perhaps not – we wouldn’t know. But if there is no result, then he should immediately return the mandate,” Levent Gök, the CHP’s deputy parliamentary group chair, said Aug. 17, just hours before a scheduled meeting between Davutoğlu and Bahçeli.

“From now on, each passing minute, hour and step by Davutoğlu is meant to be a seizure of authority,” Gök said, underlining that such a move would not be sustainable according to Turkey’s democratic customs and rules.

“Mr. Davutoğlu needs to immediately return the mandate and not to a [pawn] in the hands of the president. Davutoğlu is going through an important test. The mandate should be given to our [party’s] chair,” Gök said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave the mandate to form a new government to Davutoğlu in his capacity as the leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which received the highest number of votes in the June 7 election, yet fell short of a majority.

Talks on forming a coalition between the AKP and the CHP broke down on Aug. 13, making an autumn election almost inevitable and leaving the incumbent ruling party having to turn to the nationalist MHP for support. 

The AKP leader’s meeting with Bahçeli comes with just a week until the expiration of a 45-day deadline on Aug. 23.