President Erdoğan hints at May 14 for general elections

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has signaled that Türkiye will go to the simultaneous presidential and parliamentary polls on May 14, 35 days earlier than the slated day, vowing that his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will claim another victory against the six-party oppositional alliance.

In a huge symbolism of May 14, 1950, elections in which late Adnan Menderes won the country’s first free elections against the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Erdoğan said “The late Menderes said on May 14, 1950, ‘Enough, the people will have their say,’ and emerged victorious at the ballot box,” in his address to his party’s parliamentary group on Jan. 18.

“Our people will give their answer to the [opposition] on the same day 73 years later.”

Erdoğan has already been declared as the joint candidate of the People’s Alliance, composed by the AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and will be for another five-year term in the upcoming polls. As the AKP and MHP votes are not enough to change the election date from June 18 to May 14, Erdoğan will have to use his power to dissolve the parliament in the first 10 days of March.

If no presidential candidate can get 50 percent plus one vote on May 14, then the first two contenders will go to the second round on May 28. The most voted will be elected as the president in the second round.

“2023 is the beginning of the Century of Türkiye. That is what makes this upcoming election important and historical,” Erdoğan said, stressing that they are preparing for these polls with the excitement of this new beginning. “Türkiye is at such a crossroads that such opportunities come to nations once in a century.”

President Erdoğan criticized the six-party Nation Alliance for trying to reintroduce tutelage over the people’s free will by appointing a puppet president. “I challenge all of you from the Parliament, the highest place where the people’s will is reflected: Whatever you do, you won’t succeed [in the elections]. My people have already figured out your plays,” he stated.

“I am standing as the president. I am standing here as the leader able to resolve the problems in our region and in the world. I am here whose agenda is to launch the Century of Türkiye. God willing, I will be standing here again as the architect of the Century of Türkiye after the polls,” Erdoğan maintained.

He also criticized Good Party leader Meral Akşener who has accused President Erdoğan of trying to exploit people’s feelings through a constitutional package on the use of the headscarf.

“My people know perfectly whether Erdoğan and his friends are exploiting this matter or not. If you are sincere on this issue… My friends did ask an appointment from your party, but you have rejected it. You and Mr. Kemal [Kılıçdaroğlu of the Republican People’s Party] are no different from each other,” he said.