Nation alliance nominates CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu for presidential polls
ANKARA
The opposition alliance has announced Republican People Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as the joint presidential candidate to run against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the elections to be held on May 14, after a 72-hour-long crisis and intense negotiations between the six oppositional leaders.
“Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is our presidential candidate,” Felicity Party leader Temel Karamollaoğlu, host of the six opposition parties meeting on March 6, said following the leaders’ meeting.
“As Nation’s Alliance, we will rule Türkiye with consultation and consensus,” Kılıçdaroğlu said addressing the crowds in front of the Felicity Party headquarters.
The leaders of the six opposition parties have agreed on the 12-article “strengthened parliamentary system” roadmap, the CHP leader said.
“During the transition to the parliamentary system, the leaders of other parties will be the vice presidents,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.
The text of the 12-articles mentioned that Istanbul and Ankara mayors, Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş will be appointed as vice presidents at the time the president sees fit and with defined tasks.
İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener rejoined the “Table of Six” on March 6 on condition of İmamoğlu and Yavaş being executive vice presidents if the opposition parties gain power in the upcoming elections.
Akşener attended the meeting of the Nation Alliance on March 6 to discuss the joint candidate of the opposition, Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, and the İYİ Party leader’s new proposal for vice presidency.
Ahead of the meeting, İYİ Party Spokesperson Kürşad Zorlu said Akşener had brought a proposal “in line with the will and desire of our nation.”
“For the honorable presidents [İmamoğlu and Yavaş] to be executive and authorized vice presidents,” Zorlu said.
The spokesperson noted that Kılıçdaroğlu and Akşener had a meeting on March 6 before joining the Nation Alliance meeting.
The two leaders’ discussion came after İmamoğlu and Yavaş visited the İYİ Party headquarters on March 6 and met Akşener ahead of the Nation Alliance’s meeting.
The İYİ Party leader asked them to convey to Kılıçdaroğlu that her party wanted İmamoğlu and Yavaş to be the executive presidents as a precondition to rejoin the alliance, Zorlu said in another statement earlier in the day.
Ankara witnessed a rare political tremor following the abrupt departure of the Good Party leader from the Nation Alliance after she harshly accused all five leaders of plotting against her and her party on March 3, because they wanted to nominate Kılıçdaroğlu as the presidential candidate of the alliance despite İmamoğlu and Yavaş having “higher support” according to the polls.
In her departure statement, Akşener made an open call to the Istanbul and Ankara mayors to announce their candidacy for the presidency. Both elected with the ticket of CHP, İmamoğlu and Yavaş reiterated their support for Kılıçdaroğlu in Twitter messages and posed with the CHP leader with the participation of other mayors from big cities on March 5.
The Nation Alliance was formed first between CHP’s Kılıçdaroğlu and Good Party’s Akşener following their cooperation in the 2019 local elections that resulted in significant victories in Türkiye’s largest metropoles, including İstanbul and Ankara.
The alliance was later expanded and institutionalized with the participation of the Felicity Party and Democrat Party. In the latest wave, the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) and the Future Party joined. It was commonly known as the Table of Six.
A former member of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Akşener formed her own Good Party in 2017 after a major dispute with MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli. Her party could race in the 2018 polls only after 15 CHP deputies joined the Good Party following the instruction by CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.