Political parties submit deputy candidate lists to election board
ANKARA
Political parties submitted their parliamentary candidate lists for May 14 polls to the Supreme Election Board (YSK) on April 9.
Since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) applied the rule of three terms, 70 percent of its deputies, who took office in the 27th Term, are being replaced. Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy and Health Minister Fahrettin Koca were not included in the AKP’s list.
Following an earlier announcement that the ministers in the cabinet will be candidates for parliament, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan nominated the prominent figures of the ruling party and the current ministers in Anatolian provinces and metropolitan cities.
Deputy President Fuat Oktay and Labor and Social Security Minister Vedat Bilgin are nominated from Ankara, Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu from Istanbul, Trade Minister Mehmet Muş from Samsun.
Defense Minister Hulusi Akar is nominated from Kayseri, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez from Eskişehir, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu from Antalya, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ from Şanlıurfa, Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati from Mersin and Education Minister Mahmut Özer from Ordu.
The AKP nominated Tuğrul Türkeş, the son of the National Movement Party (MHP) founder Alparslan Türkeş, from Ankara, and Sevan Sıvacıoğlu (representing minorities) from Istanbul.
A total of 57 members of the AKP stuck to the three-term rule and could not be nominated, including Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop, AKP Deputy Chairman Binali Yıldırım, AKP Group Chair İsmet Yılmaz, AKP’s Group Deputy Chairmen Bülent Turan, Mustafa Elitaş and Yılmaz Tunç and AKP Deputy Chairman Hayati Yazıcı.
As part of the agreement within the Nation Alliance, Republican People’s Party (CHP) nominated some candidates from the Felicity Party, DEVA Party, Democrat Party and Future Party on its list.
The CHP reportedly reserved nearly 60 quotas for the Felicity Party, DEVA Party, Democrat Party and Future Party.
The CHP nominated former ambassador Namık Tan from Istanbul. Türkiye Change Party (TDP) Chairman Mustafa Sarıgül was nominated by the CHP from Erzincan.
The CHP also nominated Türkan Elçi, the wife of former Diyarbakır Bar Association Chair Tahir Elçi, who was killed in Diyarbakır’s Sur district, from Istanbul.
A statement by the CHP said some party members, including Mehmet Bekaroğlu, Levent Gök, Akif Hamzaçebi and Cihangir İslam, were not nominated as parliamentary candidates, but these names would be assigned at different levels of the state administration in the post-election period.
İYİ (Good) party did not nominate anybody in nine provinces, Adıyaman, Çorum, Erzincan, Hakkari, Rize, Van, Batman, Bartın and Düzce, as part of its alliance agreement with the CHP.
İYİ Party nominated Ayyüce Türkeş, daughter of Alparslan Türkeş, from Adana.
The names of the DEVA Party nominated on the CHP lists are Selma Aliye Kavaf, Mustafa Yeneroğlu, Elif Esen, Hasan Karal, Evrim Rızvanoğlu, Sadullah Ergin, Seda Kaya, İdris Şahin, Serdar İnce, Ertuğrul Kaya, Cem Avşar, Ahmet Tüysüz, Sadullah Kısacık, Burhan Bahadır Özsoy, Medeni Yılmaz, Doğa Şamlıoğlu and İrfan Karadutlu.