Opposition will get 60 percent of votes to win presidency in 2019: CHP head Kılıçdaroğlu

ANKARA

A united opposition front brought together “under certain principles” will win the presidential election due in 2019 with 60 percent of the vote, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has claimed.

“We have started to accept the fact that we will definitely win the presidency with at least 60 percent of the votes,” Kılıçdaroğlu said on April 5.

“What I refer as ‘we’ includes everyone who believes in certain principles … Everybody who unites under basic democratic concepts,” he added, listing those principles as a “strong parliamentary system, independence of the judiciary, stability of Turkey, a culture of tolerance and peace rather than conflict, and media freedom.”

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has formed an alliance under the name “People’s Alliance” for the upcoming presidential elections, endorsing the candidacy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The vote of the AKP and the MHP for a legislative package paving the way for pre-election alliances had attracted criticism from opposition parties, which say the package included a series of amendments to election laws that threaten election security and risk voting irregularities.

The CHP leader stated that the main opposition has been conducting meetings with other political parties to “come together for election security.”

His meeting with officials from the small Democrat Party on April 5 was focused on election security, he said.

Kılıçdaroğlu added that he will also hold meeting with İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener in the coming days.

‘State of emergency destroyed democracy in Turkey’

Meanwhile, CHP spokesperson Bülent Tezcan blasted Turkey’s ongoing state of emergency for “destroying democracy” on April 6, a day after Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ hinted that emergency rule could be extended for another three-month term on April 19.

“One of Turkey’s most fundamental problems today is the state of emergency,” Tezcan told reporters before the party’s assembly meeting on April 6.

“They cannot rule without the state of emergency. Their rule is not secure without the state of emergency. For this reason, emergency rule has destroyed democracy in Turkey,” he added.

A state of emergency has been in place in Turkey for 18 months, after initially being imposed following the July 2016 military coup attempt.