Six-party alliance’s leaders to meet to discuss pre-election strategies

ANKARA

The leaders of the Nation Alliance will come together on Nov. 14 to continue to strategize the pre-election process and conclude works for a return to the parliamentary system if they come to power in the 2023 polls.

Ali Babacan, the chairman of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), will host the leaders at the party headquarters. The leaders will come together around six weeks after they held their latest meeting.

One of the issues the leaders will review will be technical work that translates the alliance’s announced decision to return to the parliamentary system into a constitutional amendment package. An inter-party commission has reportedly concluded drafting the constitutional amendments on the return to the parliamentary system but it will be up to the leaders to decide when and how to publicize them, according to the daily Cumhuriyet.

The leaders will also discuss the pre-election strategies but they are not expected to come to an agreement over who will be the joint presidential candidate. They had announced that the joint nominee will be announced only after the parliament decided on the date of the polls.

Türkiye will hold simultaneous parliamentary and presidential polls in June 2023 although there are expectations that they may be held in May.

In the meantime, the leaders of the alliance continue to deliver messages to their grassroots through rallies and meetings. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and Meral Akşener, the chairwoman of the İYİ (Good) Party, together attended the inauguration of multiple projects by the Çukurova Municipality in Adana on Nov. 12.

In an address to the crowd, Kılıçdaroğlu said, “I just want one thing from you: Go to vote. Don’t say ‘Nothing will change if I don’t vote.’ Because when you vote, it will bring democracy, gender equality, a clean environment, the principle of separation of powers, freedom to criticize… You will bring democracy to Türkiye altogether.”