Buldan, Demirtaş to run in June 7 elections despite HDP’s two-term limit

ANKARA

DHA Photo

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş and HDP Deputy Parliamentary Group Chair Pervin Buldan will be exempt from a rule in the party’s internal regulation that limits deputies to two consecutive terms in parliament.

The issue was discussed at latest meeting of the HDP’s central executive board earlier this week, during which it was decided to generally implement the rule in the upcoming June 7 parliamentary elections. However, Demirtaş and Buldan will be exempted from the rule’s application.

Buldan is a regular participant in the parliamentary delegation visits to the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, as part of the government-led peace process aimed at ending the three-decade long conflict between Turkey’s security forces and the PKK.

According to the decision, a number of the party’s leading deputies will not be able to run for parliament for a third time, as no exception will be implemented for them. Van deputy Aysel Tuğluk, Istanbul deputy Sebahat Tuncel, Batman deputy Ayla Akat Ata, Şırnak deputy Hasip Kaplan, Batman deputy Bengi Yıldız, Van deputy Özdal Uçer and Şanlıurfa deputy İbrahim Binici will all be unable to run for parliament in June.

Among those who have announced that they will be nominees to run for parliament on the HDP ticket is Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat, a former deputy and a founding member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Academic Mithat Sancar, who was a member of the “Wise Persons Committee” initiated by the government as part of the peace process, and former Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir have also announced that they will bid to become nominees for the HDP.