Nation Alliance should nominate common presidential candidate: Akşener

ANKARA

The Nation Alliance should agree on a common candidate for the presidential elections, the İYİ (Good) Party leader has said, stressing that the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) should nominate its own contender as it is not a member of the oppositional alliance.

“I believe it will be much more beneficial to appoint a common presidential candidate,” İYİ Party chair Meral Akşener told in a televised interview over the weekend.

“I don’t think it is right for the components of the Nation Alliance to compete against each other” in the coming elections, she added.

The Nation Alliance comprises the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the İYİ Party, the Democrat Party and the Felicity Party against the People’s Alliance of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The Future Party and the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) are also expected to join the Nation Alliance before the elections slated in June 2023.

At least 50 percent of the votes is required to be elected as president, an obligation that pushes the parties to come together in alliances.

“Our candidate should be the one who will win [the elections],” Akşener said, appreciating CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s approach as “extremely rational and well-intended.” On a question, Akşener said the HDP should run with its own candidate in the presidential elections as it’s not a formal member of the oppositional alliance.

According to the electoral law, if no candidate garners 50 percent + 1 vote in the first round of the election, the two candidates with the most votes will compete in the runoff to be elected as the country’s president.