Opposition will win presidency in first round of polls, vows CHP chief

ANKARA

The opposition’s candidate for the presidency will win the polls against incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the first round, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader has vowed, also predicting that the opposition alliance will garner the parliamentary majority.

“We will win the presidency in the first round,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu told BBC Turkish in an interview on Aug. 19.

Türkiye will hold simultaneous polls for the presidency and the parliament in June 2023 if the government does not opt for snap elections.

Erdoğan will run for another term as the joint candidate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

The opposition alliance, established by six political parties, is yet to nominate a presidential candidate against Erdoğan. In a case where no candidate gets 50 percent of the votes in the first round, then the two leading candidates will race in the second round.

Kılıçdaroğlu also predicted that the opposition alliance would get the parliamentary majority. “The picture is growing and showing itself. The Republican People’s Party is ahead of the Justice and Development Party. This trend will accelerate in the coming period,” he stated.

The Nation Alliance will get the parliamentary majority, Kılıçdaroğlu vowed, saying, “Our objective, to be decided by the six leaders, is to revive the strengthened parliamentary system and let the wheels [of the state] run again in a certain period of time.”

The CHP leader informed that the leaders of the six parties would hold their sixth in-person meeting on Aug. 21, hosted by Felicity Party chair Temel Karamollaoğlu. One of the issues the opposition alliance is working on is strategizing the transition period after the election victors, Kılıçdaroğlu stated. “We are receiving support from the academics as well. How this transition period should develop, what priorities should we have, and which decrees should we publish at the very beginning?”

“We will share our work on this altogether after it will be matured enough,” he added.