Six leaders discuss opposition’s joint presidential candidate

ANKARA

The leaders of the six oppositional parties met on March to discuss and choose the joint candidate of the Nation Alliance to run against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the next elections slated for May 14.

Temel Karamollaoğlu of the Felicity Party hosted Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Meral Akşener of the Good (İYİ) Party, Ali Babacan of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), Gültein Uysal of the Democrat Party and Ahmet Davutoğlu of the Future Party at his headquarters in the Turkish capital.

The sole agenda of the leaders was to start deliberations regarding the looming elections and who will represent as the joint nominee of the Nation Alliance. Kılıçdaroğlu is often mentioned as the strongest candidate of the alliance.

CHP Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and CHP’s Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş have also been considered as potential candidates. Yavaş, in a recent statement, underlined that he is focused on Ankara and how his municipality can best help the victims of the devastating earthquakes of Feb. 6. İmamoğlu’s candidacy is risky because of an ongoing case against him that can ban his political career.

“I will continue to be a soldier of the six-party alliance,” İmamoğlu said in a televised interview late on March 1. Kılıçdaroğlu, in a brief statement late on March 1, stressed that the name of the candidate may not be immediately unveiled although the leaders would agree in the March 2 meeting.

Along with the presidential candidate, the leaders also discussed the governance model and what sort of distribution of labor would be among the six leaders.