Main opposition CHP says it’s ready for early polls

ANKARA

The leader of the main opposition party has reiterated that his party is ready for snap elections if the government or its main political ally calls a poll, vowing they are also ready to govern the country in the best possible way and to resolve longstanding problems.

“We are fully ready for early elections. We even have our election manifesto ready. We started our election campaign a day after the local elections. Going to polls is up to them [the government]. But we are ready. We are the ones that will bring democracy to Turkey,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), told the private broadcaster Fox TV in an interview on May 26.

Kılıçdaroğlu recalled that a decision for early elections can be made by either President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) chair Devlet Bahçeli.

“Parliament is under the tutelage of the AKP and MHP. Thus, it’s Erdoğan who will decide on early polls. He might prefer to go to polls before the economy totally declines. Or Mr. Bahçeli can decide if he says: ‘I am fed up with them. They have ruined the economy. So, I am breaking the alliance’,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Turkey held presidential and parliamentary elections in June 2018 and the next elections are supposed to take place in June 2023. The support of at least 360 parliamentarians out of 600 is needed to go to early votes. In line with the 2017 constitutional changes, Turkey holds presidential and parliamentary elections simultaneously.

Kılıçdaroğlu accused the AKP of trying to provoke the main opposition party with baseless claims, the detention of its local officials and strong-worded accusations.

“In every statement, President [Erdoğan] is denouncing the CHP one way or another. Sometimes, he is crossing the ethics line. We remain calm and respond in a calm way,” he stated. The detention of the CHP’s youth branch leader in a district of Adana and of a former CHP local official in İzmir are recent examples to these attacks against the CHP, Kılıçdaroğlu stated.

“Erdoğan sees that he is losing. He is therefore trying to distract the people from the [economic] turbulence by creating enemies. In this case, the enemy is the CHP,” he claimed.